Walk me through the Valley
by Kizmet
Summary: Sequel to "To Be Good". The Exwires start the next phase of their training and begin working toward their various Meisters as Rin starts to discover the consequences of having fully awakened his demon-blood.
1. Back to School

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter One: Back to School**

"Guten Tag!" Mephisto announced cheerfully as he waltzed into the kitchen at the Old Dorm. Rin and Nagatomo were cooking breakfast while Bon had been given a bowl to stir so that he'd feel useful without causing any sort of culinary disaster. Mephisto tried to help himself to taste from one of the pans on the stove and Rin smacked his knuckles with a spoon. Mephisto pouted at him in return.

"You can stay for breakfast, but keep your fingers to yourself," Rin declared.

"What brings you by?" Bon asked suspiciously.

"The school board, the Academy Board nothing to do with Cram School mind you, has discussed Rin-kun's situation," Mephisto turned toward Rin. "Given the number of days you've missed due to… one injury or another, it's been decided that it would be unrealistic to expect you to make up the time lost. Next year you'll start over with a clean slate, so you're excused from your regular classes during the third term."

"Okay," Rin said without much interest.

"What's he going to be doing instead?" Bon asked. "Not just sitting around the dorm."

Mephisto turned to Rin, "You do still need to catch up with all the cram school you've missed. There is always next year's Exorcist Exam to prepare for."

"We've put together a tutoring plan to get him caught up," Bon declared. Rin made a face at the other boy.

"I believe Rin's teachers should also have some input," Nagatomo said mildly.

"You and Tsuzo can tutor him. Professor Adachi's okay but not Karou or Shiku. They shouldn't be alone with Rin," Bon declared.

Rin flushed and muttered a complaint about not being some delicate flower under his breath. Bon gave him a stern look.

"Also, don't be late for cram school today!" Mephisto grinned. "I will be making some very important announcements as it is the first day of the new term!" He eyed Rin's pan wistfully. "I would stay but there is much to do. Ah the life of a principal has it's drawbacks."

Rin took pity on him and quickly wrapped up a small snack.

"What did the headmaster want?" Konekomaru asked, seeing the door shutting behind Mephisto as he and Shima came downstairs.

"He was just letting me know not to come to normal classes, 'cause I already failed for the year," Rin said cheerfully.

"That's not what he said," Bon objected. "You missed the first two weeks of second term, all of December and some days between. That's practically half the term, expecting anyone to make-up that much material would be insane. Next year'll be better."

"I wasn't planning on doing high school anyway," Rin shrugged. "Mephisto just signed me up when I said I wanted to be an Exorcist."

"You shouldn't be sitting around in the Dorm," Bon decided. "Maybe go to the supply shop with Shiemi this morning. Then both of you could meet us for lunch. We'll work out more of a schedule for you in a bit."

"Just come back to the dorm and I'll cook lunch," Rin volunteered. "It's not like I don't have time now."

Konekomaru looked thoughtful. "You really do like cooking don't you?"

Rin shrugged, "I'm good at it and it makes people happy, what's not to like?"

"It's girly," Shima suggested good naturedly and Rin threw a mushroom at him.

"Cooking is not 'girly'." Izumo announced as she and Paku joined them. "If it were I'd be better at it."

"Not going to touch that with a ten foot pole," Shima decided.

"So you have slightly more common sense than Suguro... who would have guessed," Izumo replied smirking.

* * *

"Um, excuse me," Konekomaru announced himself quietly as he peeked his head into Mephisto's office.

"Come in! Come in! What can I help you with," Mephisto replied effusively.

"Well, um, I understand why you pulled Rin out of his normal classes. Or at least I think I understand. But, um, we're all worried about leaving him alone too much. Rin, well, it's not good for him to be alone with his thoughts too much," Konekomaru explained. "He's still got all that- that garbage Yukio fed him rattling around in his head even if he's starting to question it."

Mephisto looked interested. "So, do you have a solution to propose?"

"Is there something he could do with cooking?" Konekomaru asked. "We'll make sure he gets caught up in Cram School and cooking makes Rin happy."

Mephisto steepled his fingers and tapped them against his chin thoughtfully. "His breakfast was very nice, is he generally that good at in the kitchen?"

"He's very good," Konekomaru answered firmly.

Mephisto smiled. "The chef I acquired for the school cafeteria keeps chasing off all his assistants, says they're not up to his standards. So far my familiar is the only assistant he's accepted. I suppose I could see if he'd take Rin-kun as an apprentice."

* * *

As promised Mephisto was waiting when the Exwires arrived at the classroom that afternoon. "Hello my little students!" he greeted them, grinning expansively. "Normally I'd go over the result of your first attempt at the Exorcist Exam and tell you why you all failed and what you need to work on for next time… But since you didn't actually take the Exam I'll just tell you the same thing I tell every first year class: You all failed, don't feel bad about it. We are just beginning the third trimester and you'll notice a change in your schedules because this is the first trimester where where you will be getting specialized training based on your selected Meister Candidacies. Your first attempt at the Exorcist Exam showed that you have developed sufficient mastery over the fundamentals to make it worth our while to assign mentors for specialized training.

That said, we weren't particularly satisfied with any of your scores in the category of Demon Classification. If you don't know what you're fighting you don't know it's weaknesses, in other words you will be ineffective and very likely to end up dead. This goes triple for my little Aria-Hopefuls. I am truly impressed by the sheer amount of scripture you have committed to memory, but being able to quickly and efficiently determine a particular demon's fatal verse is life and death for you and your teammates. It is better to know that you don't know a verse than to blindly recite in hopes of finding one, because there are other things you could be trying instead of wasting time. Even if you truly are desperate enough to go that route your protector needs to know upfront that they are in for a lengthy battle."

"Knight-Hopefuls your foundational knowledge is deemed sufficient for specialized training. You'll be assigned an appropriate mentor to disabuse you of the notion that you know anything about your weapon of choice. We found it intensely painful and/or amusing to watch you flailing around during the exam."

"Tamer-Hopefuls, we are all delighted to have candidates with this innate ability. You are all progressing marvelously with your familiar. However your familiar will not be able to address every situation which you encounter... In fact, all of you, regardless of specialization, tend to have issues with owning a hammer and seeing every problem as a nail. You all need to diversify your repertoire... Tamers, to summon demons outside of the kingdom with which you have a natural affinity will be more difficult and you will need to make formal agreements with them to acquire their cooperation. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt summonings outside of your affinity or to summon any higher level demons until you have some training in Contract Negotiation. Without appropriate preparation you will lose your shirt and probably your soul.

"Doctor-Hopefuls, if you have any hopes of obtaining your meister in the next year please forget about it now. The amount of studying necessary to complete a Doctor's meister will make your head explode if you attempt to squeeze it all into a single year. If your pride can't handle this fact, I suggest working toward a Dragoon Meister this year as well and testing in that category during your next exam.

"Dragoon-Hopefuls, you have demonstrated enough maturity that we are now willing to put a gun in your hands. Report to the shooting range as soon as you are able. The range master will help you select a suitable weapon and see that you learn the basics of maintaining and using it. After that you're on your own. This is a secondary Meister for most of you,the time and effort you put in will determine your eventual proficiency. If you continue to demonstrate a satisfactory level of maturity you will be allowed to take your weapon with you into the field in a month or two. Please try to avoid shooting any of your allies when that happens. The paperwork involved in friendly fire incidents is atrocious."

"Starting next week, your group classes will be Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. Your mentors, who will be assigned Monday, will provide you with a schedule for individual training. All done with the review," Mephisto announced brightly. "Normally I rearrange it a bit so it sounds less like a canned speech, but why? You lot didn't even take the test, it's too much bother for me to pretend that you're any different from the last 150 years of first year Exwires I've given it too."

Mephisto gave himself a few moments to bask in the outraged expressions the Exwires were sending his way then continued. "However there is going to be something unique about the coming term: I have decided that we should try a little experiment with your class. As I'm sure you all know, this is also the termin where we start looking for synergistic pairings for our Aria-hopefuls. While we normally put them with more experienced Knights or Tamers who have a better chance of getting everyone out alive if their Aria chokes, I thought it would be fun to have our current crop of Aria-Hopefuls teamed with their classmates!"

Bon glanced at Konekomaru and Shima then said, "Fine with me. We're not really feeling particularly trustful of our seniors anyway," he said. The other two boys nodded.

Mephisto clapped his hands, "Let's get started then. Up, up everyone." The Exwires grumbled and rolled their eyes as Mephisto shooed them out of their normal seats. "Moriyama-san, you've indicated an interest in becoming a Doctor as well as a Tamer. Excellent, you already have a firm rapport with your familiar and Nii-chan's ability compliments a Doctor's role, I find you a most promising Doctor-candidate. Given that, you won't be spending as much time diversifying your skills as a Tamer should. Which isn't all bad; your natural aptitude as a Tamer terrifies the higher ups, best to allow a bit of cooling time before you become even more proficient. When next year's test comes around you will apply for a limited Tamer's meister and will be expected to be making good progress toward your Doctor's meister."

Shiemi blushed at Mephisto's praise.

"However when you are acting as a Doctor you will need someone to watch your back, much like an Aria needs a partner to give them the space to focus on their recitation," the headmaster continued. "Which brings us to Shima-san. Your teachers tell me that the only time you crack a book is when you're using it to hide magazines that shouldn't be mentioned in mixed company. Not even particularly tasteful stuff I must say, I could recommend much better."

Shima cringed, "Don't mention it… Ever actually."

"You're not exactly the most promising Aria-candidate to pass through these halls, however I'm also told your skills with your staff would make you a most promising Knight-candidate. I recommend you spend the year preparing to test for a Knight Meister rather than an Aria. If you ever chose to get serious about becoming Aria, you and Moriyama-san will be a most versatile team." Mephisto herded Shima and Shiemi together and sat them at the nearest desk.

Mephisto turned to Rin, "You will be taking Contract Negotiation with the Tamer-Candidates on top of your Knight training. Humans are every bit as fond of fine print as demons are, so consider that class utterly essential for your continued well-being. Also, we never really bothered to mention this to you, but your sword is a bit of a political time bomb." He shrugged. "It's only matter of time before the sword's location for the last sixteen years becomes common knowledge and that's going to raise some issues, as I believe Surugo-san is well aware. You see when it was… borrowed to seal your powers, there might not have been much asking done prior to the borrowing."

"In other words the True Cross Order stole the sword from my temple," Bon clarified.

"Or Shiro and I did," Mephisto admitted. "However, Shiro was Paladin at the time and even if he'd actually carried out his official assignment and killed Rin-chan he still would have needed the sword. Since then the Myodha Sect has merged with the True Cross Order, hence political time bomb that the missing Myodhan sacred relic had been in the hands of a former True Cross Paladin at the time of the merger and wasn't returned," Mephisto admitted cheerfully. "We couldn't exactly give it back at that point, and it wasn't like you were using it. It was just laying on an altar gathering dust." He smiled at Rin and Bon. "It would defuse the situation a bit if Kurikara were being wielded by the Knight assigned to the protection of the heir apparent to the Myodha Sect's Most High Priest."

"I'll make my temple accept that Kurikara is Rin's now," Bon said. Then he tilted his head back and gave Mephisto a challenging look. "It'd be easier to get everyone to accept Rin's ownership of the sword if he let me adopt him into the Myodha. Hey Rin, have you ever given any thought to converting to Buddhism?"

"Um, no," Rin stammered looking startled.

"You should. When we merged with the True Cross Order it was with the understanding that the Myodha would maintain autonomy over the clans; the Grigori doesn't have the authority to sentence a member of our clans. If we adopt you all this jump through a hoop or get executed crap wouldn't be allowed. The Family Heads would never stand for the Grigori trampling over their authority like that," Bon explained.

"Could you adopt me without me converting?" Rin asked. "Dad raised me to be Catholic."

"I don't care if you're both," Bon said with a shrug. "It's your religion that has the exclusivity clause."

"It won't work now," Mephisto commented to Bon as he sat the two boys at another table. "Your ulterior motives are too transparent… But you're going to be fun when you grow-up."

He turned back to the front of the room. "Which leaves us Kamiki-san and Miwa-san. The two of you should learn from each other: Kamiki-san your teamwork is atrocious, even your bond with your familiars suffers from your excessive self-reliance. Miwa-san has a natural talent for seeing the strengths in others and how they could be advantageously combined. Allow him to show you how your strengths could be added to those of your friends, or colleagues if you can't bring yourself to call them friends."

Izumo grimaced.

"Miwa-san, your talents go largely wasted because you lack the confidence to assert yourself more often than not. Kamiki-san has had her own falterings of confidence but she knows the trick of appearing self-assured even when she doesn't feel it, and she's learned to move forward even when she is uncertain. As the head of the Miwa family you will find that trait immensely valuable. Pay attention to the example she sets."

Konekomaru nodded, his mouth pressed into a determined line.

Mephisto sat Konekomaru and Izumo at a third table then moved back to the front of the room and surveyed the class with approval. "Now these are work pairings, not romantic-"

"WHAT!" Came from numerous quarters. "As if I would-" "Don't even think about-" "La-la-la! Can't hear you!" "Stupid clown!"

Mesphisto smiled. "I've always thought the way Suguro-san and Kamaki-san fight is cute."

"I take it back, Rin isn't so bad," Bon said.

"I'd date a real gorilla first," Izumo added.

"Could you PLEASE stop thinking about our love lives?" Shima pled. "It's mentally scarring."

"Your magazines don't actually count as a love life," Konekomaru pointed out helpfully.

"Bon, you should be nicer to Izumo-chan if you want Paku to like you." For a moment the entire room stared at Rin in silence.

Izumo eyebrows slowly drew together in a fierce scowl while Bon protested. "I'm a serious student, I don't have time for girls."

"I'm going to have to kill you," Izumo informed him calmly.

"Rin, you do understand that as Bon's knight, you are suppose to prevent him from being killed, not cause his death?" Konekomaru asked dryly.

"You like Paku?" Shiemi asked clapping her hands in delight. "I can't wait to tell her, I bet she likes you too."

Bon turned to Izumo, "Okay kill me now," he said.

Mephisto smirked, enjoying every bit of the chaos. Teaching was even better than anime, much more interactive. He clapped his hands to recapture the class's attention. "Remember, you will be meeting your mentors Monday. Surugo-san, I suggest you make time with the range-master this weekend."

After Mephisto left Shima asked, "Rin, who do you think you'll get as a knight-mentor?"

Rin shrugged. "Somebody who uses a sword I guess."

"Kurikara is a demon sword," Konekomaru pointed out. "It's not a simple blade. The Paladin is the only knight we've seen with a demon sword. They'll probably need to reassign someone from a different branch."

Izumo glanced over at Bon, as they left the classroom she fell in beside him. "We'll want to check Rin's mentor out," she stated. Bon nodded in agreement.


	2. Mentors

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Two: Mentors**

Saturday evening Konekomaru was doing homework in the old Dorm's first floor lobby when Bon came back from the shooting range. "That guy was worse than shopping with my mom," Bon declared. "I swear he had me fire every gun in his inventory at least a dozen times each. I told him upfront I wanted handgun and he still had me try six different rifles, what would I want with a rifle?"

"I think a sawed-off shotgun would go with your hair," Konekomaru remarked teasingly. "So did you settle on one?"

"Yeah, a Walther PPK," Bon said. "He gave me a shoulder holster to wear under my uniform jacket." He rolled his shoulders at the reminder, uncomfortable with the weight of the gun and the feel of the holster. "My aim was pretty abysmal, I'm going to have to practice more than I thought I would, especially if I'm going to be able to recite while I'm shooting."

While they talked Rin came in, he started to say something then stopped with a nervous twitch of his tail.

"What's up?" Bon asked.

Rin's grin was patently fake. "It's nothing… Just Mephisto told me the school chef is looking for an apprentice. He suggested I interview for the position Monday."

"Sounds like something you'd enjoy," Konekomaru said cautiously.

"Yeah, the cooking sure. Interviewing, not so much." Rin paced across the room. "I always screw up, one way or another." He laughed bitterly, "Right before I turned into a demon I got a job at a grocery because I could cook, then I screwed up and got fired the same day. Disappointed everyone as always. First time I saw a demon."

"Well, it would be something to do, something you enjoy doing, while you're waiting for the next school year to start," Konekomaru said with studied casualness. "If it works out, great. If not, you'll find something else to keep you busy. You know the interview is as much for you as them, if you don't like the guy don't take the job. So go to the interview and see if it's something you want to do."

"I suppose," Rin allowed. "Can't go any worse than my last job. I probably won't get it anyway; the cafeteria is like a five star restaurant."

"Rumor has it the chef here used to run some big fancy restaurant in Nagasaki, until he took a bet against Mephisto. But your food tastes just as good," Bon said stanchly. "You might not waste so much time making it look all fancy, but taste is more important anyway."

Rin smiled gratefully at him but after a moment his smile crumpled. "I wonder if he already knows about me being a demon," Rin worried, he started scratching at his wrist. "Maybe I'll check with Mephisto, so we don't have to waste time with him firing me later when he finds out… Assuming he hires me in the first place. Which he probably won't."

Konekomaru sighed, he walked across the room and pulled Rin's hand away from his wrist. "I heard the one assistant he's kept on so far is Mephisto's familiar, a stove spirit," he said. "I don't think he has a problem with demons."

"Oh, okay, that's good," Rin said. His tail drooped, pulling in close to his thigh despite the hope he tried to inject into his voice.

* * *

"What's this?" Rin asked when Nagatomo handed him a fancy looking letter Sunday afternoon while he was studying with Izumo for a makeup exam in Demon Classification.

"I spoke to our Bishop about you," Nagatomo explained as Rin opened and read the letter. "While he isn't an Exorcist himself he is aware of the True Cross Order and of the existence of demons and half-demons."

"It says he invites me back to church," Rin read in surprise. "And says I'm granted special dispensation to not take communion or do anything else that would hurt me. That the Bishop finds that while the rituals are important for remembering and recognizing our faith it's against God's will for me to do harm to myself."

"Are you going to go?" Izumo asked.

"I- I don't know," Rin said. He gave Nagatomo an apologetic look while he absently scratched at the back of his hand. "I- well, I sort of want to and I'm glad you and the Bishop think God 'd want me there, but…"

Rin thought about sitting with his legs pulled back to let other people shuffle past him to take Communion. They'd all be wondering why he was there if he wasn't Christian. Eventually they'd find out he'd been raised in a monastery, then they'd wonder what sin he'd committed that kept him from participating in Communion. Rin thought about walking up and taking Communion; he'd kept up with the Sacraments since his birth, he was regularly going to confession again; he had done nothing to prevent him from taking Communion. But because of who his father was if he did take Communion there was a good chance he'd die right there in the middle of the church.

Rin gave Nagaomo a sad smile, "But I don't think God want me there."

* * *

Monday morning as Rin sat at the breakfast table with the other exwires he kept fidgeted with his clothes, adjusting his shirt and jacket to better disguise the lumps where his tail was wrapped around his waist.

After watching him for several minutes Shiemi stood up and started smoothing his hair into a semblance of order.

"You look fine," Izumo told Rin while glaring daggers at the other girl. "Stop worrying."

"Maybe you shouldn't wear the school jacket," Nagatomo said, considering Rin's attire. "You still have your suit jacket don't you?"

Rin flinched. The last time he'd worn that suit had been at Father Fujimoto's funeral.

"The most important thing is that you're comfortable." Konekomaru interjected. "You'll make a better impression if you can relax and be yourself a bit. You're good at this, you just need to show him that."

"Relax? Yeah right." Rin's tail twitched nervously and he readjusted his shirt again. Then he undid Shiemi's efforts to smooth his hair, ruffling it up to better hide his ears.

"If he cares that you're a half-demon you don't want to work there anyway," Bon said frowning.

Rin took a deep breath. "Well, I'm going," he said. Several times on the walk from the dorm to the cafeteria Rin considered turning around and crawling back into bed rather than going through with the interview. But he'd told his friends he'd try so he kept going.

Standing in the doorway to the huge, gleamingly modern industrial kitchen Rin peered inside nervously wringing his hands while consciously willing his tail to not to react to his agitation. "Um, hi? Is anybody here?" Rin asked in a small voice. "I'm Okumura Rin, you're expecting me right?"

A man with cropped dark hair under a hairnet stepped from the pantry. "Okumura-san, well, let's see if you're any less worthless than the last dozen assistants Faust-san sent me," he declared. A scowling demon with large ears and short horns glared at Rin from his perch on the man's shoulder.

"O-okay," Rin stammered. "What do I do?"

The chef gestured to a counter on which a wide array of raw ingredients were laid out. "Impress me," he said.

Rin grinned and shed his jacket. "Ya got more of those hairnets?" he asked.

"You'll do," the chef announced several hours later when he'd finished evaluating Rin's efforts. "Call me Itamae, he's Ukobach. I expect you here at 5:30am every morning and you'll be done for the day when the lunch dishes are done."

* * *

"He hired me," Rin was whispering excitedly to Izumo as number of ranked Exorcists filed into the classroom.

Tsuzo grinned and waved at her younger brother, "Guess who gets to put you through your paces?" she asked.

Mephisto scowled at her and cleared his throat noisily. Tsuzo gave him an apologetic bow and surrendered the spotlight. Mephisto leaned on his umbrella. "Your schedules!" he declared producing the documents with a flourish. "As Ms. Shima indicated, she will be mentoring her brother as a Knight, so enough about her. This year, I shall be teaching Contract Negotiation to our two Tamer-Candidates and Okumura-kun. I will expect you in my office, Friday night for two hours after your regular classes end. Father Nagatomo will handle the rest of the Tamer training."

Nagatomo stepped forward, "Given your step-up in the dorm, I think we can conveniently work there. We'll be working both as a group and individually, but I'll go into more detail later."

Professor Adachi cleared his throat. "Aria-hopefuls, you will continue expanding your knowledge of scripture individually. The three of you will be taking advanced classification as a group as well as methods for quickly zeroing in on a particular demon's fatal verse."

"Wait a minute!" Shima protested. "I'm doing Knight training and Aria classes both? Who signed me up for that!" Tsuzo smiled evilly and Shima glared at her.

The door opened and Arthur Auguste Angel walked in with a sour expression on his face. "Okumura, I've been ordered to train you as a Knight," he announced without waiting to be introduced. "I will expect you in the gym on Mondays and Wednesdays at seven for training. If I don't arrive in fifteen minutes you may assume that I am occupied with more important matters. Come along, I intend to evaluate your starting skill level immediately."

Bon stood up along with Rin, adjusting his newly issued handgun as he did so. He was suddenly glad he'd taken Mephisto's advise to acquire it immediately. "Why are you coming?" Rin asked.

"You're going to be my Knight," Bon said with a shrug. "I should be familiar with your fighting style, especially now that I'm training as a Dragoon as well as an Aria."

When they reached the gym where Rin's Knight training was to be held Bon stopped in the door, blocking Angel's entry. He gave the Paladin a cold look. "If you try to hurt Rin again, I'll shoot you," he stated softly, not wanting Rin to overhear.

"As if you could," Angel replied haughtily. "But I have been ordered to train him. I'd never sink so low as to disobey orders… No matter how distasteful."

Rin had continued into the room and was examining a rack of blunted practice swords. "So we're using these?" he asked.

"Yes," Angel stated. "Having seen your 'swordsmanship' it's a wonder you haven't cut your own foot off yet." Rin ignored the unfortunate choice sayings, but Bon's expression darkened furiously at the reminder that Angel _had,_ literally, cut Rin's foot off.

Angel might have missed the change in Bon's expression, but he didn't miss the way the teen's hand drifted toward his weapon. "Why do you care so much?" Angel asked, honestly confused. "He's just a demon, Satan's bastard in fact."

"He's Rin," Bon disagreed firmly. "He's one of my friends and absolutely nothing else matters."

Two hours later Rin dragged himself out of the gym looking thoroughly demoralized. Bon was grinding his teeth and glaring daggers at Angel's retreating back.

* * *

Konekomaru and Izumo loitered in the cafeteria as the lunch crowd thinned out. They were starting to worry about making it to their next class on time when Rin walked out of the kitchen. He grinned when he saw them.

"How was your first day?" Izumo asked.

"Itamae's a crazy perfectionist," Rin declared with animation. "He had me chopping vegetables all morning because I don't make the slices even enough in his opinion. He says it affects how evenly they cook, something about heat transfer… I was getting flashbacks to chemistry classes!" He exclaimed. He held up his fingers for Izumo to see a microscopic difference. "I think I'd need a ruler to tell the difference between the ones he likes and the ones he tosses! But it worked and he says I'll get so I cut everything totally even even when I'm going fast like I like." Rin was bouncing on his toes at that.

"While I was chopping everything hundreds of times over to get it right, Itamae explained about planning a menu and using ingredients to tie everything together so the meal has a theme. It was pretty cool." Rin continued. "Tomorrow, I'm beating eggs and practicing more chopping," Rin stuck his tongue out at that and made a rude sound, but even while he complained he could hardly keep the grin off his face.

Izumo tilted her head to the side. "So you liked it?" she interrupted Rin's babbling.

Rin paused for a moment, "Yeah," he said. "It was fun and Itamae really knows what he's doing."

Konekomaru sighed with relief. "That's great Rin," he said. "I was worried you wouldn't like it."

"Naw, it's great. I'm glad you guys stopped me from chickening out of interviewing," Rin replied then resumed babbling. "Itamae complains about losing the bet Mephisto and having to work in a high school cafeteria instead of that fancy place he used to run, but really he likes it. Doesn't have to mess with the business stuff anymore, he just cooks which was what he always liked best anyway. Did you know he studied at Le Cordon Bleu?"

"In France?" Konekomaru asked.

Rin shrugged uncertainly. "It's famous."

Konekomaru smiled. "Remember to read up on Demon Pharmaceuticals this afternoon. You've got a make-up test Friday," he said as he turned toward his next class.

Rin waved to him distractedly while he walked Izumo to her class and continued recounting his morning and what an amazing cook Chef Itamae was.

* * *

Wednesday Rin had his second lesson with Angel, as before Bon invited himself along. When they returned to the dorm, Rin was moving gingerly and Bon's teeth were in danger of chipping. "Lighten up, it's training," Rin was telling him as they walked in. "It's not like he used that creepy sword of his."

Bon ignored Rin and continued cursing Angel.

"You know I'm really glad Kurikara doesn't talk," Rin continued on a tangent. "Your sword having a crush on you? That's just wrong."

"He's using training as an excuse to hit you," Bon exclaimed angrily. "You need a real teacher not that asshole."

"Well, when I get better he won't be able to hit me," Rin reasoned. "I just need to work harder."

"That's not how it's supposed to work," Bon said. "Talk to Shima, ask him what his sister does in their training sessions. He should be done by now."

"It's not important," Rin waved off Bon's concern with a look of embarrassment on his face. Still when he saw Shima heading for the restroom, dripping with sweat he decided he needed to clean up for bed as well.

"Hard training session?" Rin asked Shima tentatively.

"Yeah, my sis is a real slave driver and Dad's sending her tips from home on how to make me more miserable," the pink-haired boy whined.

Rin relaxed a bit. "Angel's being pretty hard on me too," he commiserated as he stripped off his shirt.

Shima cringed in empathetic pain at the sight of Rin. There were ugly bruises scattered across Rin's arms and shoulders. One blow had caught him across the stomach leaving a vivid red welt surrounded by dark purple swelling. "Dude, that's not being hard on you, that's a freaking murder attempt!" Shima exclaimed.

Rin grabbed a towel to cover up his injuries. "Come on, it's not that bad, I'll heal by morning."

"You look like someone tried to beat you to death," Shima disagreed. "You gotta complain."

"To who?" Rin asked. "The Grigori assigned the guy who cut off my foot instead of putting me in handcuffs to teach me to fight. I heal, it doesn't matter if I get hurt; it's not the same as hurting a human."

Shima frowned. "It matters," he said.

"No," Rin insisted, becoming agitated. "You weren't in that courtroom. No one even blinked when he cut off my foot, not even Mephisto. Mephisto only got worked up when I wouldn't let him unseal my powers to speed up healing. The rules are different for demons."

"Speaking of… Why haven't you drawn your sword yet?" Shima asked. "Because if you're this banged up after unsealing Kurikara then, seriously, Angel was trying to kill you and I've got no idea why your so-called lesson didn't end with Bon shooting that creep."

"Mephisto finally decided I'm healthy enough I don't have to unseal my powers every day anymore." Rin said, his face scrunching up with distaste. "This is no big deal. I don't wanna draw my sword unless I have to, 'specially now."

"Because you can't scald yourself with holy water anymore?" Shima asked darkly. He forced a smile and tried to put a teasing tone into his voice. "I thought you finally got it that your powers don't make you evil. Do we gotta lock ourselves up with ya again?"

"I just don't like it," Rin protested. "It makes my skin itch. Koneko's massages help, but I hate bugging him."

* * *

Tsuzo was waiting for the Exwires the next day when they arrived for their group class. "For the next few weeks Thursday's group class will be spent clearing up the Seven School Mysteries," she announced. "This should give you some practice functioning in your new teams. So we've got seven demons to exorcise and three teams to do the job. You can split up the work any way you choose, the two teams who aren't assigned to a mystery will serve as backup for the team that takes point. If the lot of you fail I'll be around to bail you out and then mock you mercilessly while I give you a bad grade."

Konekomaru raised his hand tentatively, "What information do we have on the mysteries?" he asked and Tsuzo produced a list for them.

"The mysteries are a bride who wanders the school at night," Tsuzo began. "The bride only appears to boys. The statue of Johann Faust at the center of Mepphyland moves at night. There's a toilet Mayuko in the girl's dorm; obviously a difficult spot for any of the boys. A picture of yourself dead that appears between the portraits in the high school. An empty Tram that travels the streets at night. A wunderkammer that appears in the chemistry lab and a mansion you can never reach."

"Okay," Bon said decisively. "For the girl's toilet Shiemi and Izumo will partner up then Koneko and Shima could deal with the Bride that only appears to boys. Rin and I will take the next one."

Tsuzo shook her head. "The whole point of this exercise is to get used to working in your assigned teams. No trading partners."

"So Rin and I are the obvious choice for the Bride. Koneko, Shima, one of you is going to have to dress up as a girl to support your teammate in the girl's bathroom," Bon revised.

"No way in hell," Shima declared. "You and Rin shouldn't get a free pass on the girl's toilet just because you're both guys. I say we draw lots for all the jobs, whoever gets the toilet dresses up as a girl and if Shiemi-chan or Izumo-chan end up with the Bride... Well, they'll have to dress up as a guy I guess. If someone's gonna have to cross-dress then everyone should have to risk it."

"Actually, we should evaluate the different demons then assign teams based on skills," Konekomaru said, but Shiemi was the only one who heard him. The rest of the Exwires were too busy arguing about who should have to cross-dress.

Eventually they settled on Shima's plan as being fair. Bon assigned numbers to the different mysteries then they drew lots out of a hat. "We'll leave the last mystery unassigned," he said. Which ever team is doing the worst can use it as a chance to redeem themselves."

"Ladies first," Shima declared nudging Shiemi toward the hat. She drew the empty tram.

Izumo drew the bride next, she wrinkled her nose when she saw her task. "Rin, I'm borrowing your clothes," she declared. Rin gulped then flushed.

Then it was Rin's turn to draw, he picked the statue. "Yes! No cross-dressing!"

Bon took the next draw and picked the wunderkammer. Then Konekomaru pulled the portrait.

Shima gulped and reached into the hat, "No fair!" he exclaimed as he pulled the toilet.

"This was your idea," Konekomaru and Bon reminded him gleefully.

"Alright kiddies," Tsuzo said. "You've got your assignments, I suggest you start planning now. Izumo-chan, Koneko… get ready, first up will be the Bride."


	3. Negotiation

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Three: Negotiation **

After dinner that night Shiemi brought down a thick tome of herbal properties and set to writing her names for the planets beneath the common and scientific ones to help her translate her existing plant knowledge into something comprehensible by her teachers. Bon pulled Rin aside to quiz the half-demon on the catch up work he was to have studied that afternoon. Shima started clearing the plates off the table. Konekomaru started running water for the dishes while Izumo scraped the plates and piled them up beside the sink as Shima brought them in from the table.

"We'll be going first," Konekomaru said, thinking about the Seven Mysteries. "We should have some sort of plan to deal with the Bride."

"I'll summon my Byakko, you can chant at it," Izumo said with a shrug.

Konekomaru sighed. "What good are Byakko against a ghost? And I don't know anywhere near enough about the Bride to guess her fatal verse."

"So we're both useless," Izumo said with a frown. "Is that what you're saying?"

Konekomaru shook his head. "I'm saying we need to think about what we're trying to accomplish. Generally with ghosts, you should play along a bit to figure out what's keeping them on this plane. So to start with, I think you should rent a tux… Unless you were really looking forward to wearing Rin's clothes?"

Izumo flushed. "You're planning on using me as bait?" she demanded, changing the subject.

"The bride doesn't appear to women," Konekomaru pointed out. "If something goes wrong you can just pull off your hat and chances are she'll just vanish."

* * *

Rin, Shiemi and Izumo knocked on the door of Mephisto's office for their first class in Contract Negotiation. Grinning broadly, Mephisto opened the door and ushered them in "Come! come!"

Instead of a typical classroom set up, the three Exwires found an armchair and a small loveseat. Mephisto took the chair behind his desk and watched them intently. For a moment all three Exwires hesitated over the seating. Then Shiemi smiled, "Izumo-chan, you should sit with Rin. You're the best at keeping him awake and Sir Pheles said this class was important for him." She took the armchair. Rin flushed as he and Izumo tried to arrange themselves on the loveseat and quickly discovered that they couldn't share it without touching.

"Moriyama-san gets the first point of the day!" Mephisto announced grandly. "By taking the initiative she controlled the negotiation. The three of you were presented with a situation where you had to come to an agreement. First you had to decide what you wanted and then you had to convince the other two to agree. I am unaware of Moriyama-san's agenda, but she made her choice and presented it before the other two of you knew what you wanted and so you went along with her without thinking or arguing. The best negotiation is one that is complete before the other party is aware that they were negotiating. Never summon a demon without knowing exactly what you want to from them. Know what you want, always."

"We didn't know it was a test," Izumo protested.

Mephisto steepled his fingers and smirked at her. "And that is lesson number two. This is a class in negotiation. Any time two beings interact it is an exercise in negotiation, whether or not you are aware that you are negotiating. Whether or not you acknowledge it there are always at least two agendas on the table: what you want and what they want. To be honest it doesn't even take two beings and thus two agendas is a gross oversimplification."

"If there's just one person how could there be anything to fight over?" Rin asked frowning.

"Ah, there is what you want, what you believe you should do, what you believe is expected of you, what you think you are capable… and so on," Mephisto replied. "One can and should have extensive negotiations with oneself on a regular basis. Preferably before you enter negotiate with a second party because if you do not know your own agenda you will always be at a disadvantage to someone who does."

"At the very least you should know, consciously know, your own agenda." Mephisto continued. "Of course, it is preferable to know your opponent's agenda as well. This class is technically about negotiating formal contracts with demons. Or in Rin-kun's case, with humans as they love their small print every bit as much as demons. Between humans contracts are enforced by laws, by consequences and by the personal conscious of the individual who makes the deal. For demons contracts are mystically enforced. Once given a demon cannot willfully go back on his or her word."

"What if you can't do what you promised?" Izumo asked. "For example: Rin could swear that he's going to sprout wings and fly. Mystical enforcement or not, that won't be happening."

"A very good point," Mephisto agreed. "It would depend on the weight of the vow naturally, and the nature of it. To simplify matters let us say the vow is taken in all solemnity and holds weight. If it were made as part of a deal, the other party might consider Rin-kun's likelihood of growing wings and feel relatively secure in not fulfilling their half of the agreement. There are certain dangers in assuming the other party is incapable of carrying through... because if Rin-kun does somehow grow wings then anyone who was counting on him not upholding his end of the deal is screwed."

"If the second party does fulfill their obligations regardless of Rin-kun's ability to grow wings then the mystical enforcement of a demon oath comes into play. He will be obligated to try, possible or not; it could easily become an obsessive compulsion to look for the means to grow wings. If the vow is extremely weighty, for example if he chose an oath that had particular significance or history for him it could drive him to jump off a building and try to fly even in the absence of wings." Mephisto frowned at his two Tamer candidates. "Binding a demon to a contract they are incapable of fulfilling is particularly cruel thing to do. If you succeed the consequences to the demon are severe; if you fail their retribution will likely be equally cruel."

Shiemi's eyes widened with concern. "Can we ask a demon what they can do before making a contract."

"Of course," Mephisto replied. Then he grinned. "But unless a demon is oath-bound to speak the truth, they can lie. It is always best to do your own homework. And you must always understand the terms of the agreement."

"Like how when someone promises to 'consider' doing something it's pretty much worthless?" Rin asked giving Mephisto a dark look.

Mephisto beamed at him in return, "Precisely. Also you swore to stay away from holy water, it didn't swear to stay away from you. Your vow has no relevance if a third party throws a holy water grenade at you. Demon oaths never cover third party intervention."

"What is the difference between third party intervention and being incapable of fulfilling a contract?" Izumo asked. "I'd think there would be a lot of overlap."

"Mystical enforcement," Mephisto explained. "To you the inability to sprout wings may sound no different than an inability to _not_ be in the path of a grenade but to the powers that be there is a difference."

"So, um, what if I promised someone I'd cook them dinner then I got detention," Rin asked. "Would I be forced to sneak out of detention?"

Mephisto's grin widened, "Maybe you aren't going to be hopeless after all," he remarked. "That is a complex question, because chances are you also made an agreement with your instructor to be in detention. In the case of two competing oaths, which one holds?" he asked then continued without giving his students a chance to answer.

"The weight of a demon oath depends on two factors: Formality; a demon may say 'I shall see you tomorrow,' and I would give it slightly better odds of happening than if a human were to say the same, but if they say "I swear that I will be here next Friday for your class," you may count upon it. And history: both the history of the oath and the history of the individual demon. It is exceedingly rare to meet a divorced demon. Variations on the marriage oath have existed in most cultures for hundreds of years, the sheer weight of repetition makes it practically ironclad, then add in the ceremony…"

"Til death do us part," Izumo said, looking thoughtful.

"Exactly," Mephisto said. "You may be wondering why it is that a demon would make a deal with a human when a human can choose to go back on their word while a demon cannot. But remember the final and most compelling reason humans have for upholding their end of a deal: Consequences. If you renege on a contract with a demon they may take everything up to and including your soul… Unless you've specifically agreed upon a different forfeiture ahead of time. Many a summoner has come to a bad end because they assumed that they would never go back on their word and left the consequences of a broken promise fully at their summon's discretion."

"But to go back to Rin-kun's initial question: If a demon is bound by two competing oaths the more weighty one will hold and, all else being equal, the oath first given will hold. Stacking oaths can be very useful… For demons. It is one of the few ways a demon has of creating loop-holes which they aren't obligated to state upfront."

"There is one final point I wanted to bring up in today's lecture," Mephisto finished. "You should already know this if you're up on your fairytales, but it bares repeating. There is no such thing as 'intent' in contract negotiation. There are only the words of the agreement. Elaborate wording and metaphor provide rich grounds for loop-holes. A strong contract is simple and literal in its terms."

* * *

Monday evening while Angel and Rin traded their demon swords for wooden bokken, Bon made himself comfortable leaning against a wall with a textbook in his lap and his gun laying on the floor beside him, "It's not comfortable," Bon excused himself to Rin.

Angel looked annoyed at the unsubtle reminder of Bon's earlier warning. "Lets see if you can manage to last longer than a minute this week," Angel said to Rin, his expression making it clear that he doubted it.

Rin set himself holding the bokken. Almost before he could blink Angel knocked him off his feet. Rin scrambled back to his feet and tried to get his sword up in time to intercept Angel's next blow.

Bon had watched the last several lessons with steadily growing fury as Angel simply using his much greater experience and speed to knock Rin to the ground over and over again. On the rare occasion where Rin managed to get his sword in place his strength was at least equal to the Paladin's but Angel knew better than to let Rin bring his raw power into play. To Bon's eyes it looked like every so-called lesson was more brutal than the last.

Fifteen minutes into the spar, Angel raised his bokken to deliver a follow-up blow while Rin was still on the ground only to quickly hop backward to avoid a bullet. The Paladin turned to glare at Bon, "That wasn't a warning shot," he observed.

Bon didn't lower the smoking gun in his hand. "I told you I'd shoot you if you tried to hurt Rin again. You need more of a warning than that?"

"You need a lesson in respecting your betters," Angel declared taking a step toward Bon. A moment later Rin was on his feet again and planted between Angel and Bon, even without Kurikara drawn a faint halo of flames surrounded him.

Angel lunged, intending to knock Rin out of his way again. Rin took the blow on his shoulder and used the opening in Angel's defense to attack. For the first time Rin's bokken connected, driving the air out of Angel's lungs. The Paladin leapt back. As he paused to re-evaluate the situation Bon took another shot him.

Now that both teens were involved a different pattern began to emerge. With his emotions running high, Rin's powers enhanced both his speed and strength. Angel's skill was so far beyond Rin's that Rin was still taking repeated hits, but with Bon in the line of fire Rin accepted that he was going to take damage and used moment when the blow landed to launch his own counter-attacks. Whenever Angel tried to gain a little space to take advantage of his greater reach and height, Bon took a shot at him. Even when he closed with Rin, Angel kept his attention divided between the two boys in case Bon was willing to risk a shot.

Ten minutes later, Angel still hadn't managed to get past Rin to get to Bon. But this time when he fell back Bon's gun clicked empty. Angel smirked drove into Rin with a new intensity. Desperately Rin tried to match the increased pace, but he was steadily being pushed back.

"You're an Aria," Angel said with a disparaging glance at Bon. "Naturally, I don't have a fatal verse, but you can still shield your knight."

Bon's jaw dropped in shock but he recovered quickly. The next time Angel was about to land a blow on Rin Bon chanted a quick sutra. Angel's bokken bounced off of a barrier. Rin barreled forward and tried to tackle Angel.

Angel leapt over him and went for Bon. Rin threw his sword at the back of Angel's head. Angel twisted around and grabbed the sword out of the air, but the delay was enough for Bon to establish a barrier around himself. Rin quickly darted across the room to put himself between Bon and Angel once again.

But to the boys' surprise, Angel stood down. "That was stupid," Angel informed Rin. "What exactly do you propose to do without a weapon? However you aren't as completely hopeless as I initially thought. Perhaps I will be able to get a bit of a workout training you."

* * *

Saturday, after the lunch dishes were cleaned up, Izumo and Shiemi followed Nagatomo up to the third floor lobby for their joint Tamer class. Once everyone was settled in Nagatomo asked, "How was your Negotiation Class?"

Izumo shrugged.

"A little scary," Shiemi answered. "I don't want to hurt anyone or make them feel trapped."

"Good," Nagatomo said. "You'll have a much better relationship with your summons if you strive for an equitable, honest arrangement. Our fairytales are replete with stories about desperate people making bad deals with demons then finding a loophole so they get what they want without paying anything at all. Those are not the sort of deals you want to be involved in. Don't trust, most demons have lived a very long time and you don't know what their history is, but don't try to take advantage either. You don't want to be part of the history that makes them bitter and vengeful toward Assiah."

Shiemi nodded determinedly.

"How so?" Izumo asked.

"Make deals you're willing to keep," Nagatomo said. "Which brings us to your homework. It will be awhile before you're ready to make contracts, but I want you to start thinking about which demons you want a contract with. You'll want to prepare ahead of time to deal with a broad range of circumstances, but like I said: Only make deals you're willing to keep. So you'll need to research both various demon's abilities and what they are likely to want in return."

"I'd like both of you to have a plan prepared for approaching two middle-level demons from a kingdom outside your affinity by next week. Explain to me what benefits you gain from a contract with them and what you intend to offer in return."

* * *

The following Thursday the Exwires gathered in the hallway leading to one of the school's upper walkways to take on the first of the seven mysteries.

"I don't think your plan's going to work," Shima said to Konekomaru, never taking his eyes off Izumo.

"And why is that?" Konekomaru asked. "Given that you don't know our plan."

"'Cause Izumo doesn't look like a guy in that tux, she just looks insanely hot," Shima replied. Izumo scowled and Rin elbowed Shima hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

"I could have done that myself," Izumo told Rin, not sure whether or not she was pleased that he had rushed to her defense.

Rin shrugged, "I was closer."

"I suppose that's okay then," Izumo decided, a faint hint of a blush coloring her cheeks.

"If you're all done flirting, we do have a ghost to deal with," Tsuzo said with amusement. "So get a move on it, we haven't got all night."

Konekomaru frowned and bit his lip.

Izumo rolled her eyes. "You never said there was a time limit," she said. "We have a plan."

"Oh?" Tsuzo asked.

Konekomaru took a deep breath and stepped forward. "The Bride has been around for ages, this isn't urgent," he said. "And I don't have enough information to figure out her fatal verse. Izumo is just going to talk to her tonight, then we'll research the Bride and exercise her next Thursday. Or if you don't want to lose your schedule, we'll come back Saturday night on our own time. There's no reason to rush in unprepared."

Tsuzo smiled encouragingly. "Good point. And I'm sure my little bro isn't complaining about putting off cross-dressing for another week."

Bon frowned. "Will taking longer affect our grades?"

"If it's the difference between me bailing you out and you finishing the exorcism on your own, oh yeah that'll affect your grades," Tsuzo replied. "Actually I agree with their evaluation: the situation is not urgent and taking their time to do the job right is a valid choice."

Izumo twisted her long hair into a messy bun then plopped a top hat over it. "I'm ready, lets see what the Bride has to say," she said and strode off toward the walk where the Bride was known to appear, Konekomaru jogged after her. The other Exwires cautiously peered out of the door. As expected a figure in white was standing at the end of the walkway, staring out over the Academy.

Konekomaru stopped about halfway to the ghost, "Remember, you want to play along and get her talking. If we can find out why she became a ghost, we might be able to help her move on willingly," he said.

"I know the plan," Izumo said irritably. She continued out to the end of the walkway, when she was about a meter from the ghost she said. "Excuse me, are you waiting for someone?"

The wedding-kimono clad figure turned and Izumo drew back at the sight of_ his _stubbly chin. The ghost smiled brilliantly and exclaimed, "My groom!" in a wavering falsetto voice as he tried to glomp Izumo.

Back in the doorway, Tsuzo caught Rin by the collar as he attempted to leap to Izumo's rescue. "Lets see how she handles it," the staff-knight warned. "And what are _you_ going to do about a ghost anyway? Physical attacks won't work."

Izumo's chin came up stubbornly and she gave the cross-dressing Bride an icy look. "No kissing before the wedding," she declared.

The Bride giggled girlishly and hid his face demurely. "Sorry," he said.

Izumo sighed with relief. "What brings you out here?" she asked.

The Bride started to answer then hesitated. "I- I can't remember." He looked down at his kimono. "I didn't get cold feet did I? … No, that wasn't it… There wasn't a boy." He fluttered his lashes at Izumo, "But now you're here!"

"Why are you dressed for your wedding if there wasn't a groom?" Izumo asked after giving the ghost another quelling look.

"I… The girls were always so pretty in their wedding dresses," the Bride sighed. "I wanted to dress up like that and play with dolls."

"You wear it well," Izumo said, then her innate bluntness prompted her to add, "The five o'clock shadow detracts a bit, but other than that…"

"Thanks," the Bride smiled. "You look cute too, although you have a bit of an edge at the Bishie thing…" He faded away.

Izumo turned around and walked back to the rest of the class. "That was easy," she announced.

"Good work," Tsuzo told them, then turned to Shima and Shiemi. "Next up is the toilet."

"Well, Shima can't be a worse girl than that," Rin remarked, Bon and Konekomaru snickered.

"I hate you all," Shima informed them.


	4. Providing Support

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Four: Providing Support **

Bon and Rin arrived at the gym for Rin's Knight practice and found the room empty. Bon opened up his bag and started digging out homework while Rin traded Kurikara for a practice sword. Several minutes later Angel walked in. "Put up your books and put on your gun," he told Bon.

He turned to Rin. "The last lesson was surprisingly successful, let's see if you can manage to repeat it. Your goal will be to prevent me from reaching your Aria. If I get past you I will hold back exactly as much as I've been holding back against you."

Rin glanced from the Paladin to Bon and the blood drained out of his face.

Angel turned back to Bon, "You are his partner, not an observer. Remember that and fight to the best of your ability as both Aria and Dragoon. Your bruises won't fade as quickly as his if the two of you fail."

With every word Angel said the faint blue haze around Rin grew stronger. When the Paladin took his stance opposite Rin he paused for a moment to watch the blue flames flickering on the edge of the visible spectrum. "Begin!"

Rin lunged forward, taking the offensive to try to drive Angel away from his Aria. Bon bit his lip, he raised his gun and waited for Angel and Rin to separate enough for him to risk a shot. After several minutes he sighed and lowered the gun. Both Rin and Angel were aiming for a close quarters fight. Angel knew Bon wouldn't risk a shot while Rin was so close. Rin knew his strength and ability to take punishment worked more to his advantage when Angel didn't have the range to evade.

Bon winced every time Angel's bokken hit home with a crack like thunder as it met Rin's shoulders or ribs. Rin raised his hand and caught Angel's bokken, for a moment all three of them froze; from the sound Bon was certain that Rin had to have broken bones. Then, still grasping Angel's sword, Rin lashed out with his weapon. Angel leaned away from Rin's attack and kicked the much smaller knight-hopeful in the solar plexus sending Rin flying across the room. Bon quickly cast a barrier around Rin and then himself.

"Protect yourself first," Angel ordered. "In a real fight you wouldn't know whether or not your knight's alive right now. Even if he is, he's down hard and if you die he'll follow you before he recovers."

"Don't count on it," Rin said raggedly as he staggered back to his feet. "I'm not done."

Angel nodded and lunged at him. Rin got his sword up in time to block but the strength of the blow drove him back to his knees. Rin snarled and shoved back. Angel kicked him under the chin snapping his head back viciously.

Bon raised his gun, almost ready to take a shot, but Angel was behind him. He cringed in anticipation of pain. Rin, wreathed in flames, grabbed the bokken and reduced it to ash. Angel spun around, grabbed Rin by the back of the neck and slammed his head into the wall with a resounding thud. Angel released Rin and he slid bonelessly to the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Bon demanded shoving past Angel. "You could have broken his neck!"

"Not unless I chose to," Angel stated as Bon knelt beside Rin. "If he were human I'd concern myself with the concussion, but he's not."

Carefully Bon rolled Rin on to his back and started checking him for injuries.

"I told you, he's fine," Angel said frowning.

"And I don't trust you," Bon replied, not bothering to look at Angel.

After a few moments Rin started blinking. He groaned and sat up clutching his head. "Ow," he announced. "You okay?" he asked Bon, still cradling his head.

"Yeah, he stopped after you went down," Bon admitted. He helped Rin off the floor.

"You were bluffing about hurting Bon?" Rin asked squinting at Angel.

"I don't understand you," Angel declared, giving Rin a dark look. "I've never seen you access your powers past the seal in defense of yourself, but you were burning at nothing more than a verbal threat against your Aria."

"That's because you're a cold hearted bastard," Rin informed him. "_I_ don't let people hurt my friends."

"You're a demon," Angel stated. "You're not supposed to care about anyone but yourself."

Rin's shoulders drew in and his gaze dropped to the floor.

"I'm sick of people telling Rin what demons are," Bon growled. "If you'd opened your damn eyes it'd be obvious that your idea of what a demon is isn't him. Don't any of you realize Rin should be able to defend himself?" He glared at Angel accusingly. "When some _jerk_ keeps hitting him with a stick, he's got a right to get mad! But all you morons with your stupid notions about what he's supposed to be because of who sired him made it so Rin doesn't protect himself the way he'd protect a human. It ain't right!" Bon exclaimed. He steered Rin toward the door. "Come on, I've had enough of this jackass for today."

By the time they made it out of the building Rin had mostly recovered from the blows to the head and was walking on his own. Rin started to say something then broke off several times as they crossed the campus. Then he finally said, "I did once, back before I even knew I was a demon."

"Did what?" Bon asked.

"The first time my flames got out, it was before I ever drew the Koma Sword, before I even knew it existed," Rin explained. "This creep from my old school… Well actually he goes here but I haven't seen him since I started. I'd gotten in fights with his gang before, but then he got possessed by a demon. I thought he was really gonna kill me, I freaked and my flames broke free."

"Good. Everything that's happened since then, everything that's got you thinking that you don't got the right to take care of yourself, it's all crap," Bon declared.

"I don't think the Vatican would see it that way," Rin said quietly.

"If you don't take care of yourself how are you supposed to take care of your friends?" Bon asked. "I'm not looking for a replacement knight, ever. When we go on a mission, either both of us come back or neither of us do."

Rin smiled a bit at him and started thinking about how he could work around Bon's resolution if it ever came down to it. Knowing that his friends wanted wanted him to be alright gave Rin a sense of warmth he hadn't felt since Shiro's death, for their sakes he wouldn't sell his life cheaply. Still, Rin was utterly determined that he would die before losing anyone else.

* * *

"So how is your homework assignment going?" Nagatomo asked Izumo Wednesday night as they walked toward the park behind the dorm. The dry grass crunched beneath their feet and their breath was visible in the cold air.

"The Byakko are more versatile than most demons," Izumo said. "They can handle most physical attacks. So I thought I should start by making contracts with a demon from the Kingdom of Time or the Kingdom of Light."

"That sounds sensible," Nagatomo agreed.

"So what are we doing out here?" Izumo asked.

"I thought we'd have a little game of capture the flag between our familiars," Nagatomo said.

"Two to one, you won't have a chance," Izumo stated.

"Then you won't mind if I use one of my summons as well as Malkin?" the priest asked.

"What sort of demon?" Izumo asked.

Nagatomo shrugged. "A Dard named Cheshire. I've promised him opportunities to play if he'd assist me on occasion and harassing canines would definitely fit his notion of playing."

Izumo nodded as she accepted a flag from Nagatomo. "That's fair enough. Mike! Uke!"

The two Byakko appeared, they stared at Izumo challengingly as Nagatomo summoned Malkin and Cheshire. "You're to keep this scarf away from those two while trying to take their scarf," Izumo told them holding out the flag. "Don't do too much damage to Father Nagatomo's familiars."

Mike and Uke gave the scrap of cloth a dubious look. "It looks nasty, I don't want to touch it," Mike complained. "If I can't tear the straw-man apart why would I want to bother?" Uke said, then added. "And I don't play with cat-lizard things."

Izumo glowered at the pair. "You'll do it because I say so!" she exclaimed. "This isn't just a game it's a class and you're making me look bad!"

The pair looked at her with blank expressions. Izumo stamped her foot. "No more argument!"

Uke sniffed but walked over to Izumo and took the scarf.

"I'll use the statue of Johann Faust the 2nd as my homebase, you can take the 4th," Nagatomo suggested. He shook his head and said to himself, "Mephisto get way too much entertainment out of putting up statues of himself."

The four demons faced off as their tamers settled themselves near the center of the field. "Begin!" Nagatomo commanded.

Malkin bounced all over the field like a pogo-stick, her poncho flapping in the wind as she jumped unpredictably from offense to defense. Cheshire raced about with the speed of a race-horse, the predatory instincts of a cat and the sinuous movement of a snake. Uke and Mike worked together flawlessly, never needing more than a glance to to tell what the other intended. But as the game progressed the two Byakko began to lag. On the sidelines Izumo paced back and forth, Nagatomo was sweating heavily, crouched on the grass. In the end Cheshire managed to heckle the two Byakko into chasing after him while Malkin made a dash for their flag. The Byakko realized their mistake but they didn't have the reserve to catch up to Malkin.

"Good game, all of you," Nagatomo said as he pushed himself to his feet. Once the demons dispersed he turned to the sulking Izumo. "Do you know why you lost?" he asked.

"Because they weren't trying," Izumo snapped. "They shouldn't have been beaten by a couple of low level demons."

"Look at you and look at me," Nagatomo said. "Cheshire and I have a contract, he's not drawing on my energy directly. I was only supporting Malkin and yet which of us is more tired?"

Izumo looked startled.

"The circles we use to summon our familiars only allow a trickle of energy from Gehenna to reach them, for the most part they draw their strength from us," Nagatomo explained. "If you don't give yourself to your familiars their efforts on your behalf are handicapped."

"I don't like feeling them pull on me," Izumo said grudgingly.

"As a Tamer you have to support your familiars if you want them to succeed," Nagatomo advised.

* * *

"Off you go!" Tsuzo announced as she and Paku shoved her very reluctant little brother out of the lobby nearest the haunted toilet. Shima was wearing a white button down shirt and the short navy skirt and scarf from the girl's school uniform with high, pink stockings. His pink hair had been pulled into pigtails and matching hair extensions had been added to give them some length, a navy blue bow decorated the left pigtail. He'd been made up with delicately applied lip-gloss, blush, eyeliner and mascara.

Konekomaru managed to maintain decorum but Bon snorted and Izumo smirked. "So cute!" Rin managed to exclaim between gasps of laughter.

"I really hate you all," Shima informed them as he stalked over to Shiemi. "I have a thing or two to say to this ghost," he said as they headed off to the toilet.

"I'll back them up," Izumo said following after the other team.

Tsuzo and Paku looked at the remaining three boys. "You aren't planning on leaving Shiemi-chan and my little brother with just Izumo for back-up are you?" Tsuzo asked.

Bon grimaced, Rin bit his lip guiltily. There was a thump from the bathroom. "Okay do us too," Bon sighed in defeat. Paku grinned broadly, she grabbed his arm and dragged Bon into the lobby. Tsuzo herded Rin and Konekomaru in after them. There was a dressing screen set up in one corner of the room and three sacks of girl's clothing, each with a name, waiting for them.

"If you can't figure out the bras just come out topless and we'll help," Paku informed them with a sweet smile and a devious glint in her eyes.

"Hurry," Tsuzo instructed. "Who knows what's happening to Shiemi-chan, Little Brother and Izumo-chan. And we still have to do your hair and make-up!"

Konekomaru was the first to emerge from behind the screen. On him the standard skirt hung just past his knees and the jacket Tsuzo had found for him was almost as over-sized as his normal jacket. "I think the bra is fairly pointless with the jacket," he stated firmly.

"Alright, you're off the hook," Tsuzo decreed as she dropped a dark wig on his head and started applying make-up.

Bon came out next, wearing the skirt and tights while holding up the button down shirt sweater vest and bra. "I give up," he said, his face was brightly flushed.

Paku grinned, Bon had a very nice chest she noted. "Put it on and I'll do up the back," she said. After latching the bra she helped stuff it while Bon turned even more red. Once he was finished dressing Paku sat him down and started pulling bows and ribbons out of a basket to hold up by his face, eyeing each selection critically. She ended up settling on a headband that would pull back Bon's bangs and make the longer strip of dyed blond hair to lay flat and blend in more with the rest of his hair.

As Paku stretched up to arrange his hair Bon's blush became steadily brighter. He closed his eyes tried not to think about how close that put her breasts to his face.

Paku stepped back to examine the effect. "Well, I think we skip blush on you," she informed him with a dimpled grin. "Totally unnecessary, just some eyeshadow and lipstick."

"How can you look so cute when you're clearly evil?" Bon asked her.

Paku giggled.

A frustrated shout came from behind the screen followed by a mangled bra. Tsuzo picked up the bra and sighed. "Well Rin-kun, looks like you're going to be a flat-chested girl. You killed that bra dead."

"Good!" Rin huffed. "It deserved it!" He emerged a moment later wearing the skirt, shirt and a pout.

Paku pulled a section of his hair into a short ponytail on the side of his head and adorned it with a bow while Tsuzo started on his make-up. "Your eyes are gorgeous," she informed him as she applied eyeliner, mascara and a hint of eye-shadow that made Rin's electric blue eyes even more attention catching.

"Just what I always wanted to hear," Rin muttered.

"Alright, you guys are all ready to rush to the rescue," Tsuzo declared. She and Paku trailed behind as the three cross-dressed boys rushed the restroom.

They arrived just in time to see Shima and Sheimi walk out. "Girls are scary," Shima declared looking shaken.

Izumo and Shiemi stared at Rin, Bon and Konekomaru, then they traded a look and exploded into laughter. Shima joined them after a moment. "Sis, everything I've said about you?" Shima said. "I take it back, you're great!"

* * *

The desk lamp created a small pool of light in Rin and Bon's otherwise darken dorm room. Bon hunched over his book, trying to concentrate on the scriptures he was memorizing and not anticipate problems. There were some nights when Rin didn't have nightmares.

"Yuki? Yuki?" Rin called.

Bon set aside his book and went to sit on the edge of Rin's bed. "It's okay," Bon murmured as he put a hand on Rin's shoulder. "He's not here, he can't hurt you."

Rin continued stirring restlessly and calling out in distress for several more minutes. Tears leaked out from behind Rin's closed eyelids, glittering in the low light. Eventually he settled back into a more peaceful sleep.

Bon sighed in relief. 'Not a bad one then.' He was almost certain that Rin had slept through the nightmare rather than just faking it to avoid having to talk about the dreams plaguing his sleep.

After a few more minutes to make sure the nightmare had truly passed then Bon turned out the light and went to sleep himself.

Shortly before dawn Rin's sleep turned restless again. "Yuki? Daddy, where's Yuki?" he pled.


	5. Fettered

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Five: Fettered**

Thursday rolled around again, with it the next of the Seven Mysteries: the moving statue.

Bon pulled Rin aside as they approached Mepphyland's central square. "Adachi-Sensei has been teaching us some chants to aid in identifying demons. I want to try them out. You keep the statue busy while I figure out it's fatal verse."

Rin grinned. "So pretty much the same plan as always?" he asked flippantly. Bon scowled and gave him a light shove toward the square.

While Bon and Rin approached the statue the rest of the Exwires and Tsuzo waited just outside the square. Bon stopped about three meters from the statue, he pressed his hands together and started chanting. Rin sauntered right up to it's base and knocked on it's leg. "Yo! Clown Replica!" he called. Then he jumped back to avoid being kicked as the statue came to life.

The statue took on a pale red glow and Bon's chant changed it's rhythm. "Not Kin of Amaimon then," Konekomaru murmured.

Rin heckled and made faces at the statue while he dodged it's blows.

The statue took on a green glow. "Kin of Azazel," Konekomaru commented. "That's Leviticus, or the Book of Enoch. I hope Bon's not planning on reciting both books in their entirety."

Rin darted between the statue's legs then drove his sheathed sword into the back of it's knee with all his strength. The statue twisted as it fell, trying to crush Rin with it's mass.

Bon started reciting short random passages in quick succession. Konekomaru frowned thoughtfully for several minutes then said, "Oh, it's generally low level demons that animate things. Bon's reciting all the fatal verses he knows for low level Spirit demons. It's a less comprehensive approach but if he does know the right verse he'll defeat it in ten minutes or less."

"Don't be so sure," Shima remarked. "Never underestimate Bon's willingness to memorize things. I bet he's got at least twenty minutes of possible verses to recite."

The Exwires weren't the only ones to figure out Bon's strategy. The statue turned and glared at the Aria-candidate."

"Rocks for brains!" Rin shouted as he jumped on the statue's shoulders. "Don't turn your back on me!" He pounded the statue's head repeatedly with the hilt of his katana.

The statue reached up and grabbed Rin, it's giant hand enveloping his head and upper body. It threw him roughly to the ground then turned on Bon. Bon stood his ground and kept chanting, only breaking off when the statue smacked him into a near by building.

The other Exwires started forward, but Rin was back on his feet and Bon held up a hand to stop them. "Don't screw up our grade," he protested. Shakily Bon pulled himself back to his feet and resumed chanting.

Rin darted across the square and planted himself between Bon and the demon. "Okay, I'm done playing," he announced giving the statue a dark look as he grasped Kurikara's hilt in one hand and the sheath in the other. Rin pulled, but nothing happened. The Koma Sword remained sheathed. He stared at the sword in shock and pulled with all his might. Kurikara could have been welded to it's sheath for all the good it did.

"Rin!" Izumo shouted as the statue took advantage of his distraction and kicked him viciously. The sound of Rin's ribs breaking was audible across the square as Kurikara was sent flying in one direction and Rin in another.

Bon broke off mid-verse as Rin landed in a crumpled heap. For a moment he looked torn. The statue smirked when Rin groaned weakly and started trying stand. Then it turned it's attention to Bon again. The Aria-hopeful took a deep breath and began reciting as he drew his gun and fired at the statue.

"Mike! Go!" Izumo ordered pointing toward where Kurikara had landed.

Bon's bullets put small craters in the the statue's cape and hat which only served to annoy the demon. The focus needed to aim and fire caused Bon's recitation to falter.

The statue was almost on him when RiIn pulled himself to his feet, burning blue despite the seal, and charged. He drove his shoulder into the statue's legs toppling it for a second time. Before it could rise Rin grabbed it by the ankle and heaved it away from Bon. Then he went after it.

Bon froze, unable to decide between holding himself in reserve to cast a protective barrier around Rin or to continue to work his way through the likely fatal verses or to continue trying to shoot the statue.

Mike brought the Koma Sword to Izumo. She drew it without difficulty and Rin's low flames exploded as the seal was breached.

Bon's shoulders relaxed. He went back to the last verse he'd flubbed while trying to shoot and repeated it smoothly.

With his powers unleashed Rin caught the statue's next blow and shoved it's fist back.

Bon gave up on verses from Leviticus and moved on to the Book of Enoch. Half a minutes later the statue froze, it's eyes lost animation.

Konekomaru walked over to Bon, "Sometimes I don't know what to think of you," he announced. "You have a giant statue about to smush you and you're worried about maybe getting a 'B'?"

"I guess I've gotten too used to having Rin's flames as an ace in the hole," Bon admitted.

On the other side of the square Shiemi was trying to pull up Rin's shirt to see how bad his ribs were.

"I'm okay," Rin declared, flushing and stumbling backwards to avoid Shiemi's ministrations.

Izumo sheathed Kurikara and returned it to him, incidentally getting between Shiemi and Rin as she did so. "What happened?"

"The sword got stuck." He tried and failed once again to unseal his powers.

"I didn't have any problems," Izumo said with a frown. She took Kurikara back and demonstrated.

"Let me try," Konekomaru said. After he successfully drew the sword Bon took it.

"Cut that out!" Rin exclaimed as he burst into flames for the third time.

"Sis, do you know what's going on?" Shima asked.

Tsuzo shook her head.

* * *

Mephisto listened politely as Bon and Izumo interrupted one another while describing the situation. "So do you know why I can't draw Kurikara anymore?" Rin asked when they ran out of steam.

"May I ask when was the last time you successfully unsealed your powers?" Mephisto asked. He narrowed his eyes. "I will assume it was _not _your assigned therapy?"

"Rin still hates letting us see him unsealed," Bon reported when Rin didn't immediately respond.

"But you _have _been doing your therapy?" Mephisto asked with a chilling smile.

"Oh yeah," Rin replied. He nodded toward Bon. "I won't let them watch so he unseals the sword and times my hour. He thinks I'd lie about doing it if he wasn't making me."

"You tried scrubbing up with holy water afterwards back when you still could. As if you were going to get better pulling stunts like that," Bon replied unrepentantly. "You're my teammate, I worry about you. I'm not gonna standby and let you hurt yourself if I can stop you."

Rin gave Bon that was part frustration part gratitude. He appreciated the reassurance that Yukio was wrong, that his very nature didn't make people hate him. Still Bon's style of caring tended to be a bit high-handed and controlling. Izumo was pretty much the same but somehow she had a knack for taking over his life without making him feel like a child.

Rin remembered fighting with his Dad about wanting to be treated like an adult just over a year ago, a life-time ago, when he'd still thought he was human and that demons were imaginary. Yet another fight Rin wished he hadn't provoked, if he could have Shiro back he would have gladly put up with being treated like a kid until he was thirty.

Truth be told Rin was starting to give up hope of ever not being treated like a child. As soon as he'd found out about Yukio being an Exorcist his little brother had started bossing him around. Yukio had called himself both Rin's caretaker and his jailor. The others always made a huge fuss about the holy water, but for Rin the worst of it had been the feeling that he was nothing but a burden to Yukio.

Now, because of the suicide attempt, Mephisto was keeping a closer eye on him and his friends would barely let him take a bath without checking up on him. Rin didn't know how to convince them he was okay and they didn't need to worry. He wasn't sure that he was okay. He wanted to believe them; to believe that Yukio was wrong and that being Satan's son didn't make him a bad person, but when the nightmares came it was hard to remember. Still his friends didn't have to stay and as long as they did Rin knew he wouldn't try to end his life, he didn't want to hurt them.

"The last time you, personally, drew your sword?" Mephisto prompted.

"When I fought the Masked Guy… um Neuhaus' wife," Rin corrected himself.

"Before you learned that I'd prevented you from dousing yourself with holy water," Mephisto sighed. "I was afraid it was then. At some level I think you still believe that you were purifying yourself and that it is necessary that you do so. It is a mental block, you won't allow yourself to unseal your powers because you still fear that your flames are corrupting."

"So how do we fix it?" Bon demanded.

Mephisto shrugged. "I don't know. Neither you nor I can force Rin-kun to be at peace with himself. And given that this latest manifestation of his unease seems to have been caused by my efforts to help, I do not think it would be wise for us to try."

* * *

Izumo lay in bed trying to figure out what had woken her up so early in the morning. She listened to the creaking of the old building and Paku's soft snores from the other side of the room. More distantly she could hear one of the boys on the next floor down padding down the hall to their bathroom. Her demon blood was thin and weak, but it had given her the enhanced senses of a fox: her eyes easily pierced nocturnal gloom, Rin's cooking filled the whole dorm and the fields around it with delicious scents and her ears caught every whisper.

Her hearing had been a double-edged sword for as long as she could remember. Her classmates at her old school who called her names and harassed her had been bad enough, but much worse were the ones who tried to be nice only to have their whispers behind her back give away what they truly thought of her. _Poor crazy girl. My mother says we should be kind to her, it's not her fault she's so weird. Bad blood. I heard they locked her mother up, the same thing will probably happen to her some day._ Paku had been the only one who never joined in the gossip. Still, as hurtful as it was to hear, Izumo preferred knowing the truth to believing their lies.

As she lay in bed remembering, Izumo heard the stairs creaking, then the rattle of dishes in the kitchen. With a groan she got out of bed and pulled on a robe. Downstairs she found Rin getting breakfast started. "It's way too early to be up," she yawned.

"Itamae expects me at 5:30," Rin explained.

"Yeah well you don't have to fix breakfast for us too," Izumo said. "You should be sleeping."

"I was up anyway," Rin said.

"At least let me help," Izumo said. She tied her robe more tightly and leaned over the counter to get a better look at the cookbook. There was a notebook filled with Rin's messy scrawl beneath it.

Izumo didn't get much more than the impression of a letter before Rin snatched the notebook away and tucked it high on a shelf behind his cookbooks. "I'm going to make waffle batter, you can chop up the fruit for the compote topping. When everyone wakes up they can just put the batter in the waffle iron. Even Bon can manage that much."

"Don't be too sure," Izumo smirked. "Remember the toast?"

Rin winced. "I still don't know how Bon managed that."

The kitchen doors burst open and Amaimon charged through. Shiemi, wearing only her nightshift, slung over his shoulder. Shiemi was beating her fists against Amaimon's back. Izumo's mouth dropped open as she picked out something about, "Not decent!" Amaimon paused long enough to give Rin a challenging look then kicked open the back door and rushed outside.

Amaimon paused in the yard behind the old dorm. He shifted Shiemi a bit so that she was comfortably balanced on his hip while he waited for his pursuers to catch up. Shiemi gave him a watery-eyed look, "I just wanted to put on my robe," she told him.

Rin was out of the dorm a moment later. He didn't waste time trying to draw the sword strapped to his back, instead he attacked Amaimon with feet and claws, his tail lashing angrily behind him, the fur at the end of it wreathed in flames. Despite the power leaking past his seal Amaimon fended Rin off easily while still toting Shiemi around.

"If you don't want her back I might just keep her." Amaimon taunted. "She's kinda cute like this."

Shiemi blushed and crossed her arms over her chest, bunching up the thin material of her nightshift over her breasts.

Rin bared his fangs at Amaimon, welcoming the protective rage and the way it weakened the seal.

Izumo rushed out into the yard and summoned her familiars. "Don't let him run, harass him, try to make him drop Moriyama," she ordered. The Byakko stared at her for a moment, then plopped down on the pavement. "Why should we?" Uke asked rebelliously.

Rin slid the strap of his sword bag over his head. "Izumo!" he shouted as he tossed it to her.

Amaimon intercepted the sword. "No cheating," he tsked. He 'returned' the sword to Rin by slamming it into his half-brother's stomach with enough force to knock the wind out of the younger demon. While Rin was doubled over, Amaimon turned to Shiemi. "Let's get married," he suggested, watching Rin's reaction out of the corner of his eye. "Now you promise to love, honor and obey me until death do us part, okay?"

"Not unless you say it first," Shiemi replied impulsively.

Amaimon, still paying more attention to Rin and the increasingly volatile flames surrounding him, shrugged. "I promise to love, honor and-"

"That's enough," Shiemi interrupted quickly. "I don't think it's very honorable for you to pick fights with my best friend."

Rin and Izumo both stared at Shiemi in shock, but their reaction was nothing compared to Amaimon's. The green-haired demon shivered violently as the oath settled in to his bones. He set Shiemi carefully back on her feet. Then he stared at her for a moment in horrified disbelief before fleeing.

"Wow," Izumo said blinking. "I'm impressed," she told Shiemi.

Shiemi bit her lip. "I hope I stopped him soon enough. I don't want him to have to obey me," she said. "I just wanted to stop him from using me to tease Rin."

Rin realized Shiemi had regulated him to friend status once again, a small part of his mind was surprised at how little it stung this time. "Well, it's you," he told her. "Even if he does, you won't order him to do anything bad."

"Right," Shiemi said with determination.

"We probably don't want to mention this to anyone," Izumo cautioned. "You know what the Grigori is like." Rin and Shiemi both grimaced and nodded.

* * *

"Big Brother?" Amaimon poked his head into Mephisto's rooms with what he hoped was an ingratiating smile. "I may have said something I shouldn't."

Mephisto shut off his TV and listened with a combination of bemusement and disbelief as Amaimon explained what had happened. "What ever did I do to deserve such reckless younger brothers?" Mephisto asked when Amaimon was done.

The Earth King opened his mouth to answer and was met with a quelling glare. Wisely he silenced himself.

Mephisto paced across his sitting room, thinking out loud. "Obviously your vow was given without ceremony, seriousness… or thought," he said with a pointed glare. "However it was based on a marriage vow and thus has the weight of tradition behind it, even foolish marriages count. Though I suppose calculating the precise weight is a moot point: the vow was made, you feel it in your bones, thus it has enough weight."

"I feel it, I feel a connection to her," Amaimon confirmed. "When she asked me to stop the fight, maybe I could have broken it, but… I didn't want to."

Mephisto nodded. "So what precisely have you promised? To love and honor… at least she had the sense to stop you before you promised to obey; her oath will be equivalent to yours." Amaimon quailed at the bite in Mephisto's voice.

Mephisto sighed. "Love... As your other little brother has demonstrated love places very little restraint on actions. One may quite easily do terrible things to people they love with all their heart… However, I strongly suggest that you quickly develop a_ platonic_ love for my little student, at least until she is of age," Mephisto added with a toothy smile that reminded Amaimon that as the True Cross Academy's Headmaster Mephisto had promises of his own to uphold with regards to his students' well-being.

'Of course it is big brother,' Amaimon thought to himself, 'He has some sort of escape clause.'

"Well-being is not so broad a term as love, but it isn't particularly narrow either," Mephisto said, divining the direction of his younger brother's thoughts. "Sending Yukio away causes me no particular conflict. It's for his own good as much as Rin's, although I do hope he suffers before he takes my advice and develops interests apart from his fixation on his twin. Seeing him dead would not have been impossible but it would have required elaborate maneuvering had I chosen that path... As I am not inclined, at the moment to exert myself on your behalf, I advise that you consider Ms. Moriyama nothing more than a dear friend for several years to come," he warned Amaimon.

The Earth King shrugged, "It's fun teasing little brother, he gets so riled up. I really don't get all the fuss about sex myself," he admitted. "But judging from all those stupid shows you subjected me too while I was pretending to be dead you're a… what was the word? A prude. I thought twelve was the age of consent anyway."

"In Europe, from the 12th to the 16th century," Mephisto replied disapprovingly. "Here, it is twenty without her mother's approval and I wouldn't recommend discussing this with her mother."

"Back to the subject at hand. Honor will bind you a bit more stringently than love, as you have discovered. Due to Moriyama-san's personality and your own it seems her sense of honor will define honor for the both of you. She knows her own mind, since coming to Assiah you've just been amusing yourself… Although you claimed you wished to be here to better understand the division between your parents," Mephisto scolded.

"And between you and Father," Amaimon interrupted. "It's just a game, why do you hate each other so much? And why will neither of you give it up? Mother thinks you're both fools to care so much about this place."

"You mother cared as well in her time," Mephisto asserted. "But like all the other elders she's grown distant and apathetic. Father has been corrupting the game for generations, the humans think of Gehenna as divided into Heaven and Hell… and the more knowledgeable ones only believe in Hell."

"Who cares what humans think? They're just our pawns," Amaimon pointed out.

"The game is our coming of age rite," Mephisto disagreed. "And the playing pieces sense that it's been despoiled."

"That's not what Mother says you think," Amaimon challenged. Then remembered that he needed Mephisto's help and added, "I came to play the game as it was meant to be played, not as a tool for Father to use to vent his rage."

Mephisto gave Amaimon a warmer smile. "And you have made your first serious mistake in the game, but it could have been much, much worse. Sheimi is kind. But do you understand your mistake? We may consider humans to chess pieces in our game but they are not without their own desires. If your game piece may usurp control over you is it truly a chess piece or is it actually another player in the game? "

Amaimon squirmed a bit. "Maybe she has some Gehenna blood in her?"

Mephisto laughed and shook his head. "It is a game of course," he added after a few minutes. "A marvelous game, but we never play it to the end. Like toddlers we throw the board on the floor just when it gets interesting. Our esteemed father would do more than that: If he can't play anymore he would see the game board torn to shreds so that no one else may have a turn. I would see how the game ends. Although that is a topic for another day."

"For now, let us see how we may mitigate the effects of your foolish oath. Although…" Mephisto paused, he gave Amaimon a long look "Having someone to help keep you out of trouble has a certain appeal."


	6. Being a Demon

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Six: Being a Demon**

When Rin, Shiemi and Izumo arrived at Mephisto's office for their class Amaimon was standing in the corner rocking from one foot to the other while nervously crunching a lollypop between his teeth.

"As you can see, you have a new classmate," Mephisto announced brightly. "I know it's a bit irregular, but as our resident Hell King and Moriyama-san are basically stuck with one another, I thought why not? Besides he's my little brother and frankly his lack of forethought is becoming embarrassing." He glanced over his shoulder at Amaimon, "Thoroughly unbecoming of a demon."

Amaimon scowled at his brother for chastising him in front of the Exwires.

Shiemi walked over to Amaimon and took one of his hands between hers. She smiled up at him earnestly. "Let's be friends," she offered.

Amaimon bit through his lollypop. He pulled his hand away from Shiemi and retreated behind Mephisto's chair. "The oath only lasts until you die," he said.

Mephisto sighed. Rin glared at Amaimon furiously. Izumo took her normal place on the loveseat and proceeded to ignore Amaimon.

Shiemi said, "Then we can be friends for… oh I don't know, maybe eighty years?" She smiled gently at the demon. "It's okay, I promised to love and honor you too," she assured him.

Amaimon just glared and didn't come out from behind the chair.

"Well then on with our lesson," Mephisto said with fake cheer.

* * *

The following Monday Izumo found herself sitting in the kitchen staring up at the shelf where Rin had hidden the notebook she'd glimpsed before Amaimon's kidnapping attempt the previous week. Rin obviously didn't want her to know what was in it, but… Izumo stretched up on her toes, the notebook was still there, he hadn't moved it yet.

'Rin should be sparing with that ass of a Paladin now, he won't be back for a couple of hours. If it's just something embarrassing, like a diary or something, I'll put it back and pretend I never looked,' Izumo decided. 'I just want to be sure it isn't something that could hurt him.'

She took down the notebook and opened it to the last page and started reading.

_Yukio,_

_I think I did well on my demon pharmacology test today. I'm almost caught up in my classes, I just need to pass one more recitation test for Shiku-Sensei and I'll be up with everyone else. Not doing normal school work really gives me a lot more time to study for cram school. Even better is how Koneko explains stuff, he says I'm a whole-to-part learner and that's sort of why I suck at school. He says I'm not stupid, I just need to learn differently than most of the other people. _

_I know you won't believe it but I'm not having any problem getting out of bed in time for my job in the cafeteria. Itamae-san and Ukobach are great, I get along with them really well because we all love cooking. Ukobach and I keep trying to top each other, who can chop vegetables faster or flip pancakes higher or stand hotter dishwater, stuff like that. Yesterday we were making meringue, you beat the egg-whites really fast and for a long time to make them stiff. That's what makes the nice peaks, so Ukobach and I were trying to out do each other as normal, only we beat the eggs too hard and they flew out of our bowls and got all over the kitchen. Itamae yelled at us, then he made us clean up and made the meringue himself (since we were obviously too immature). He didn't beat the eggs half as energetically as either of us, but he used a copper bowl and wiped the sides of it with a lemon slice before putting in the egg-whites. His meringue turned out really good. Something about denaturing the bonds in the eggs? You'd probably understand that better than I do, but I'm picking up a little. Chemistry isn't so terrible when cooking is involved. _

_I hope you're happy in Brazil. I read that it's really warm there and that the girls all walk around wearing bikinis, not that you'd care. You're always way too serious to notice girls, but they notice you! Maybe you could make a little less effort at running away? Shiemi still thinks of me as just a friend, but I guess I don't mind anymore, I don't know why. _

_Are you teaching Exorcists classes in Brazil? I bet it's a relief not to have me in your class embarrassing you. I know it's been a long time since you needed me to protect you from bullies, you could just give them that teacher-look you'd turn on us Exwires and they'd all run away, you wouldn't even have to pull your guns or anything, but I still wish I knew you were okay._

_Your big brother _

_Rin_

Izumo flipped back a few pages. Most of the notebook was filled with similar letters, unsent updates about Rin's daily life and requests for similar information. Izumo scowled, as long as Rin still cared about Yukio, Yukio could still hurt him. Flipping back further, Izumo suddenly stopped. Rin's writing had turned jagged, shaky. There were spots where the ink had run and the page crinkled from tears.

_I'm sorry. Sorry I made you hate me. Sorry, sorry, sorry you had to go away. It's all my fault. I'm sorry. Should have just died when you told me to. Dad never should have saved me, then both of you would be okay._

"I believe that's private."

Izumo jumped. She looked up in surprise and saw Father Nagatomo standing in the kitchen doorway giving her a disapproving look. "Do you know what Rin's writing?" she demanded.

"Broadly," Nagatomo admitted cautiously. "It's suppose to help him sort out how he feels about Yukio and what happened."

"He shouldn't feel guilty!" Izumo snapped. "Rin didn't do anything wrong. It's Yukio who should apologize!"

"You know just enough to cause problems don't you?" Nagatomo sighed. "Okay. First, Yukio isn't going to apologize because he refuses to admit he did anything wrong. That, more than anything else, was why he had to leave."

"Who cares about Yukio anyway?" Izumo demanded. "He's evil, he tortured Rin."

"Rin cares," Nagatomo pointed out. "And that's the second problem. Rin agrees that what Yukio did to him was wrong, but he clings to the belief that Yukio meant well; that Yukio's intentions matter more than his actions. Telling Rin how he _should_ feel about Yukio won't help anything."

"Because Yukio brainwashed him," Izumo snarled.

"Yukio had quite a bit of help," Nagatomo replied quietly. "I know Rin, I've known him since he was an infant, there's no question in my mind that he's person just like me, fully capable of choosing between good and evil. Rin's kind-hearted and protective by nature and yet he's a demon. Every day he trains to fight demons because demons are the enemy of all Assiah. Satan, Rin's father, is the epitome of evil. Rin is the only demon other than Satan himself, to be marked with the blue flames, even Mephisto and Amaimon, both sons of Satan and full demons to boot, don't have them. It's not just what Yukio did that Rin has to overcome, it's everyone who's ever called Rin a demon as an insult."

"Yukio was born human, Rin was born a demon; add to that Yukio is better at school and never got into trouble the way Rin did. He sees Yukio as being better than he is." Nagatomo smiled sadly. "Rin was never jealous, he was always proud of how talented his younger brother was. And then Rin came here and even though Yukio is his twin and actually the younger brother Yukio was Rin's teacher, he was placed in a position of authority over Rin. Yukio abused that authority, he used it to tear Rin down to the point where he could only see his existence as something harmful to the people around him. From the outside we see Yukio abusing his position and hurting Rin, but what Rin sees is a person he loves and trusts confirming everything that tells him that he is something less than human, something worse than human."

"Rin has bad moments," Nagatomo nodded toward the page Izumo had been reading, "but he tries not to dwell on them. He's trusting you and the others to see him more clearly than he can see himself. He's decided not to act on the part of himself that still believes the world would be better off without him, but that doesn't stop him from feeling that he's undeserving of the consideration any human has the right to."

"Not everything from Gehenna is evil," Izumo said. "Even your religion has angels and Rin's father was one of them until he chose to become evil."

"No one's ever called Rin an angel," Nagatomo replied. "He's too human."

* * *

On the other side of the campus Bon edged around the gym's perimeter chewing on his lower lip. Now that his participation in the spar was part of the training rather than a deterrent to keep Angel from hurting Rin he wasn't really comfortable taking shots at the Paladin. True to his boast, the Paladin was entirely capable of taking on both teens and trouncing them; although Bon wondered if that would still be true if Rin fought with his powers unsealed; still, as good of a fighter as Angel had proven himself to be, firing live ammo at the man as part of a training exercise didn't sit right with Bon.

Besides, doing so would obscured the point if Angel did crossed the line with Rin again.

Given Angel's recent actions Bon was almost ready to give the Paladin the benefit of the doubt and believe that those first few lessons had been an ill-conceived attempt to motivate Rin to fight harder. Angel had certainly adapted quickly enough once he'd figured out that threatening Rin's Aria got a stronger response than hurt Rin himself. At the same time, the previous winter had ensured that Bon didn't trust the Paladin further than he could throw him.

In the center of the gym Rin and Angel crossed swords with a deafening crack of wood on wood. Rin shoved Angel back making use of his greater strength. To his shock Angel didn't even try to hold his ground. Rin stumbled forward, off balance due to the lack of resistance. Angel dropped into a crouch and kicked Rin's legs out from under him.

Bon quickly cast a barrier to prevent Angel from capitalizing on Rin's mistake.

"Your stance is pathetic," Angel informed Rin smugly. "Getting you off balance is child's play. Once that is accomplished your monstrous strength means less than nothing."

Rin hopped back to his feet. "You won't do that again."

Ten minutes later Rin was back on the floor. "Pathetic," Angel repeated.

"So show him how to do it right!" Bon exclaimed angrily. "Are you his teacher or not?"

Angel held up a hand to stop the spar. He scowled, clearly not in favor of Bon's suggestion but not dismissing it out-right either.

Rin looked between Bon and Angel worriedly. Bon watched Angel as the Paladin thought things over. "You don't really want to teach Rin," he accused.

Angel gave Bon a disapproving look. "What I want is immaterial. I have been _ordered _to train Okumura."

"Well you suck," Bon stated. "You give me more pointers on working with a knight than you give RIn on being a knight. You don't want to train him so you just spend a couple hours knocking him around and call that good."

"I don't undermine my orders," Angel protested but he sounded notably less sure.

"Enlighten me then," Bon snapped. "What do you call doing a half-assed job? You insult Rin when he gets things wrong but you don't tell him what he should be doing instead. You give me suggestions, so I know you can do better, you just don't want to."

Angel paced back and forth for several moments looking like the wrath of God. Then he turned on Rin. "Get up! Hold your sword at ready."

When Rin did as he was told Angel adjusted Rin's hands on the sword and his feet. "Now lunge! Freeze!" Angel snapped then adjusted Rin's position again. There was no missing the distaste in the Paladin's expression every time he had to touch Rin but he was teaching him.

After several minutes Bon set his gun aside and took out a textbook.

Angel spent the rest of the lesson walking Rin through basic sword drills.

"Spend an hour a day practicing those drills on your own," Angel ordered when the second hour was up. "From now on the two of you will spar against me on Mondays. Okumura and I will work on his technique Wednesdays."

"I think I'll hang out anyway," Bon decided.

"Stop treating me like a kid," Rin exclaimed. "You don't gotta protect me from him."

"Yeah I do," Bon disagreed. "Thanks to Yukio, you don't know when someone's abusing you." He nodded toward Angel. "And I'm starting to think that maybe he doesn't know when he's outta line either. You both need a chaperone. If it ain't me, it'll be someone else. I told Mephisto how much damage you were taking after your first lesson."

Uninterested in the by-play between the two boys, Angel put up his bokken and settled Caliburn back in place.

Rin scowled fiercely and Bon looked away. "As long as he's teaching you, you're gonna keep getting monthly check-ups. Bruises shouldn't have the same sort of accumulative effect as holy water but we need to make sure he's not taxing your healing too much." At Rin's look Bon exclaimed, "You nearly died! I'd rather tick you off by being overprotective than risk losing you."

Rin sighed in surrender, "I'm supposed to be your knight, supposed to protect you. But you're always the one protecting me. I must be pretty worthless."

Bon chewed on his lip for a moment, hating how unhappy Rin looked. "How about you protect me from demons and I'll protect you from humans?"

Rin perked up a bit at that. "It's a deal!" he declared.

Angel had been just about to leave, he stopped and turned to stare at Rin in shock.

"What?" Rin asked after a moment. "Do I have something on my face?"

"It's nothing," Angel said quickly and left.

* * *

"You're going to get wrinkles," Lightning teased as he slumped casually in the seat next to Angel while they waited for the others to arrive for the council meeting.

"Contradictory orders give me a headache," Angel complained.

"Hmm?" Lightning sat up and gave Angel his full attention.

"I've been ordered to watch Okumura and kill him when he becomes a threat to the Order," Angel explained. "At the same time I have been ordered to train him as a knight. It would be much simpler to kill him now. I don't like playing games."

"Simple yes, but a waste of a potential resource," Lightening pointed out. "He is quite powerful."

"Yes exactly," Angel complained. "His primary weakness is that he has no clue how to use that power. And if I follow my other orders that weakness will be corrected. He'll be much harder to kill after he's trained as a knight."

"Not up to the challenge?" Lightning asked with a smirk.

Angel scowled. "It's a waste of my time to train him just so that he's harder for me to kill later."

"Really, _you'd_ have trouble with him?" Lightning grinned slyly, "Are you starting to _like _our little hellspawn?"

"Don't be absurd," Angel drew himself up, looking affronted. "I don't like dealing in false hope, he should have been killed when Pheles and Fujimoto's deception was first uncovered. The Exwires are already much too attached to him and the situation has only gotten worse with time. The Grigori has no intention of allowing him to pass the Exorcist's Exam. Training him is pointless and yet I have been ordered to do so."

"Well, you'd better follow your orders to the best of your ability," Lightning replied.

"Which ones?!" Angel exclaimed in frustration.

* * *

Tsuzo smiled as she stopped the class outside the Hall of Portraits. "Izumo-chan, Koneko you're up. I hear you two have been doing some background work on your own time, so why don't you catch the rest of us up before we go in?"

"Well, um we interviewed the students who'd had encounters with the portrait," Konekomaru began. "We also talked to Sir Pheles to see if he knew anything."

"Mephisto told us it's call the Family Portrait," Izumo interjected. "He knew more than he was telling us."

"But we decided that he was probably withholding information because this is a class assignment and he didn't want to give us the answers," Konekomaru resumed. "All the students we interviewed told different stories but the common theme was they saw something they were afraid of."

"They couldn't even agree on which portrait they were looking at when it happened," Izumo added with disgust.

"Sir Pheles told us it's getting more dangerous," Konekomaru continued. "The interviews confirmed it. Up until two months ago it showed smaller fears, surface worries: failing a test or friends gossiping behind your back, for example. Now the fears are deeper, more traumatic: death, loss of a loved one, loss of self. It's getting further into people's heads."

"We're pretty sure it gave one student, a guy named Godain, a masho at the start of the term," Izumo said. "We need to get rid of this thing."

Tsuzo nodded. "Officially the Hall's been closed for remodeling since the attack on Godain. That's what gave us the idea of having you lot clean up the Seven Mysteries as a training exercise," she said. "The Street Car is actually the most urgent situation but it's also the most dangerous. We wanted to let you work up to it."

Shima groaned. "So not only did we draw the cross-dressing assignment we also pulled the most dangerous one. That figures."

""We all ended up cross-dressing," Bon reminded Shima.

"But you didn't have to face the embodiment of female spite while cross-dressing," Shima countered.

Shiemi patted him on the back. "Rin and I both thought you made a cute girl," she assured him. "And you weren't trying to peep, it was a class-assignment. And- well-" Shiemi colored lightly.

Shima clapped a hand over her mouth. "Not really helping," he said.

"What? Did it say cross-dressing and sneaking into a girl's restroom was the only chance you had of seeing a naked girl outside of your filthy magazines?" Izumo asked.

"Eavesdropping or was that thing a kindred spirit?" Shima replied.

Konekomaru cleared his throat. "Anyway, the Portrait is urgent," he said. "We suspect it's been possesed by a shapeshifter but we haven't confirmed it or which portrait is the problem. I'm going to cast a protective barrier on myself then go provoke each of the four suspect portraits. Once we know which one has been possessed Izumo will expel the spirit."

"Good prep-work," Tsuzo said. "Let's see how your plan works."

Konekomaru took a deep breath, cast his barrier and reminded himself that all his friends were there to back him up then walked into the Hall of Portraits. He picked the closest of the four suspect portraits and walked up to it. After a moment the painting of the woman began to shift. Konekomaru found himself staring into Rin's hospital room back in early December.

_Rin's severely burned body lay beneath a clear tent to try to prevent infection, a futile effort, he'd been running a dangerously high fever for over seventy-two hours now. The night before his heart had stopped twice and Mephisto had placed Kurikara on Rin's chest in a last ditch bid to strengthen him. With Rin's hands, deformed into claws by his burns, placed on the hilt of his sword, he looked like the corpse of a knight laid out for burial. A knight who'd died a particularly painful and gruesome death._

_Konekomaru overheard two orderly talking in the hall outside of Rin's room. "I don't why we don't just finish the job he started."_

"_He's been more stable since Sir Pheles' visit. His fever's still high, but he's gaining ground."_

"_That fever? That's his humanity being burned away. Humans don't survive being boiled alive. Maybe he was half-human before, but if he wakes up all that will be left is the demon."_

_Konekomaru sensed Bon standing behind him. "It's your fault you know," the larger boy stated matter-of-factly. "If you hadn't been such a fucking coward after the forest Shima and I wouldn't have ostracized Rin. And then he wouldn't have killed himself." _

Konekomaru blinked, he was back in the Hall of Portraits, surrounded by the other Exwires. Bon's hands were steepled and he had a look of intense concentration on his face as he chanted to maintain a barrier around them. Konekomaru felt a flash of shame at how easily his barrier had broken, then he noticed that Rin wasn't with them and his stomach clenched. 'What is real? Rin waking up and recovering, or dying in that hospital room?' Konekomaru wondered as he scanned the circle of faces again, searching for Rin.

"When you went down he went after you before any of us could stop him," Shima said with a nod toward the Hall beyond Bon's barrier. Konekomaru looked over his shoulder and saw Rin, wreathed in flames, his sword still strapped to his back as he fought an invisible opponent. While Konekomaru watched Rin was slammed to the ground, but the demon-boy was immediately up and on the attack again.

"I tried the official expel spirits on the portrait just like we planned," Izumo said accusingly. "It didn't do anything. Rin's gone berserk but with the sword sealed he's not powerful enough to defeat it. We can't get him in the barrier to break the illusion, we can't get the sword because he's berserk and we can't defeat the Portrait ourselves because your plan failed!"

"Okay, okay," Konekomaru said, trying to pull himself together. "First we need to see what's really going on. Shiemi, can you ask Nii-chan for something in the Barberry family?" Shiemi nodded. "Alright, I'll cast a spell of awakening, that should protect us from the shapeshifter's illusions. Bon, how's your barrier holding up?"

Bon shrugged, 'so-so,' his expression told them.

"Can you give us ten minutes?" Konekomaru asked and Bon gave him a fiercely determined look.

Shiemi had already mashed the berries into a paste by the time Konekomaru finished talking with Bon. He took them and dabbed a spot on each of the Exwire's foreheads as he chanted a quick verse. The room shimmered and they finally saw the giant unformed mass that Rin was fighting.

"Why does Rin see it when he's under it's spell?" Izumo asked.

"Try Expel Spirit again," Konekomaru instructed.

Izumo did as he asked and for a moment the mass wavered. Rin saw it's momentary weakness as well and ripped at it with his claws vengefully. But the weakness passed in moments.

"Why is called the _Family_ Portrait?" Konekomaru wondered out loud. "That was the one hint Sir Pheles was willing to give. It was a portrait of a woman. In fact, each of the suspect portraits is of a single individual…" He looked at the portraits again and inspiration struck. "They all have the same frame. Different people were looking at different portraits when they were attacked because they're a set and the shapeshifter is in all of them!"

"Got it," Izumo said and ordered Mike and Uke to exorcise each of the portraits in turn. Each time the shapeshifter wavered and then was restored. Even after the last portrait had been cleansed of evil.

"We have to hit them simultaneously," Konekomaru realized. "Izumo, have your familiars take the top two. Shima hit the one right in front of us. Bon, you're going to have to shoot the last one… But you'll need to drop the barrier and they'll swarm us. We need Rin, but we've got to rescue him first."

"Nii-chan and I can hold them off for a bit," Shiemi said.

"Okay," Konekomaru said moving to stand beside the blond girl. "Ready?"

"Ready," Izumo and Shima said. Bon pulled his gun and aimed it at his target. He stopped chanting and focused on shooting. Nii-chan produced a thicket of brambles around them as Bon's barrier crumbled. "Go!" The three Exwires attacked together and a moment later the shapeshifter folded in on itself and was gone. With his enemy gone Rin crumpled to the floor and wailed.

"You wake him up," Shima told Konekomaru. "Rin's a live-in-the-moment type guy. You were the one who was down when he went in the hall, so his biggest fear right then was that it had killed you."

"That's why Rin could see it," Bon realized. "Shapeshifters are tough to kill but they aren't bright. Rin was scared that it had killed Koneko so that's what it showed him. It wasn't capable of considering how Rin would react."

Konekomaru knelt in front of Rin and gave him a light shake. Rin looked up, his face a teary mess, for a moment he looked confused then he tackled Konekomaru, hugging the slighter boy with such enthusiasm that he knocked them both over. "It's okay, it's okay," Konekomaru murmured hugging Rin back tightly, glad of the excuse to reassure himself that Rin was really okay too.

Izumo plopped down on the floor beside Rin and Konekomaru. "Next time, leave the sword with someone who can draw it," she said.


	7. Drawing a Line

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Seven:** **Draw a Line**

Izumo sat alone in her room thinking back on the Exwire's last assignment and scowling.

_Konekomaru walked into the dimly lit hall of portraits and went straight to the first of the four suspect portraits, one of a pretty young woman wearing an old fashion dress. He stared at it intently._

_Bon was the first to realize that something had gone wrong. He started toward the doorway, "Koneko's barrier just fell."_

'_So that's the one,' Izumo thought and started chanting the formal Expel Spirit. But instead of doing as they were bid Mike and Uke plopped themselves down on the floor. "We don't have to do __**that **__much for you!" Uke declared._

"_Just do what I say!" Izumo snapped._

_In the hall of portraits Konekomaru fell to his knees. Before anyone could stop him, Rin rushed into the hall._

"_At least give us a little treat," Mike whined._

_Out in the hall Rin screamed, his voice full of grief and rage. His flames manifested brightly despite Kurikara still being sheathed in it's bag on his back._

"_Nii! Get me some Uruchi and Mochi Rice plants!" Shiemi requested. "Great Inari gods! I can only offer these rice plants but please lend us your strength," she said as she bowed to Mike and Uke._

"_Damn! Rin's gone berserk," Bon said hovering in the doorway._

"_Please!" Shiemi repeated beseechingly._

_Izumo turned toward the hall, tears welling up in her eyes._

"_Well, I suppose we could help," Mike said._

"_That girl asked so __**nicely**__," Uke added with a reproving look at Izumo. "Go ahead and chant."_

_The Byakko went into action but a moment later they were back. "We did try," Mike informed Izumo._

"_Okay, I'm going to cast a barrier around us. Then we'll go drag them inside," Bon decided. "Once Rin and Koneko are safe we'll figure out where to go from there."_

"_What good's a barrier going to do?" Izumo demanded. "You saw what happened to Miwa."_

"_I'm a stronger Aria than Koneko, and I've been practicing barriers against the Paladin all term," Bon said with conviction. "Besides, I know it's going to try to break through. That's why I need the rest of you to get Koneko and Rin for me. I'm not going to be able to focus on anything except holding the barrier."_

"_I suppose if we have to," Shima sighed._

_Izumo glanced at him for a moment and saw he had no doubts that Bon could do what he said. "Okay," She agreed. "Let's get them back."_

"Mike! Uke!" Izumo called.

"What now?" The two Byakko appeared in Izumo's dorm room looking disgruntled.

"What now!?" Izumo exclaimed. "Now you're going to hear what I have to say! I have had it with the two of you acting like brats!" She glared at them, hands on her hips. "When I call you do what I tell you to! You don't talk back!"

"The two of you are always embarrassing me in front of my teachers. Worse yet, your disobedience is putting my teammates at risk. I have had with your stalling and whining and- and- laziness! The next time I call, you do what I say or there will be consequences!"

Before Mike or Uke could respond Izumo tore her summoning circle and sent them away.

* * *

Friday night, once the dinner dishes were drying in the rack, the Exwires confronted Tsuzo. "We want to take care of the Street Car tonight," Bon declared. "If it's a threat to the community, it needs to be taken care of, it shouldn't wait on our class schedule."

"Shiemi-chan? Little Brother? You're the point team for this one, what do you think? Are you ready to go?" Tsuzo asked.

Shiemi nodded firmly.

"We get a break on our grade if we need back-up right?" Shima wheedled. "Because we're going early?"

Tsuzo chuckled and shook her head. "Never miss a beat do you? Okay guys, go get your gear."

Bon cleared his throat and held out his hand.

Rin rolled his eyes and handed over Kurikara. "I'm on back up, it's not like I go berserk everytime we go into a fight."

"You were on back up last time," Bon said.

"The time before that Amaimon stopped you from getting the sword to someone who could draw it," Izumo pointed out, "And the time before that I only managed to get the sword because Mike was in a mood to play fetch."

* * *

"Okay we're going to split up," Tsuzo said thirty minutes later. "Little Bro and Shiemi-chan will board the streetcar at the stop on Third and University. You've got until the stop at Founder's Park to put it out of commission. That's where it vanishes back into Gehenna."

"So how do we back them up if they're in the car and we're out here?" Rin asked.

"We'll be waiting to intercept the car a block from the park," Tsuzo said looking unusually serious. "Make no mistake if we go in it's a rescue mission." She turned to Shiemi and Shima. "We won't be trying to deal with the car. At that point our only goal will be getting the two of you off before you get dragged into Gehenna… So, we'll see you at the Park, hopefully on foot."

Shiemi and Shima waited at the tram stop. The possessed car pulled up looking innocent and inviting and the two Exwires boarded. Shima glanced around at the other passengers in confusion. "Part of its camouflage?" he murmured to Shiemi.

She stared for a moment then gasped. "Look down," she whispered. "They're all spirits."

"Mommy! Mommy! When will we get home?" the ghost of a small boy whined. "We've been on the tram _forever_!"

"I don't think they know they're dead," Shima said quietly.

"These poor people," Shiemi murmured, her eyes watered sympathetically. "We have to save them."

"How?" Shima asked. "We've only got about twenty minutes to defeat this thing."

"The spirits are more important," Shiemi decided. "We can come back tomorrow for the streetcar, but I won't destroy them with it."

"So what _can _we do?" Shima asked. "Start yelling that they're all dead?"

"Oh!" Shiemi's face lit up. "A lantern plant! Nii-chan!"

Nii-chan grew the lantern plant and gradually the spirits were drawn into it.

Shiemi stumbled when the streetcar suddenly lurched. Shima caught her. "I think it's getting mad," he said with a nervous glance at the inside of the car. It was starting to look less and less like a streetcar and more like the innards of a giant beast.

"I need a little longer," Shiemi said.

Shima assembled his staff. He watched the walls of the car warily as they absorbed the seats and fixtures, sprouting tentacles in their place. "Done yet?" he asked as he used his staff to thwack one overly brave tentacle.

"Not yet," Shiemi protested.

Shima dug out his cellphone and started texting with his free hand while he nailed another tentacle with the butt of his staff.

* * *

At the rendezvous point Bon scowled as he read the text. "Shima needs us to stall the train," he said. "Something about rescuing spirits?"

"There's a tree near the road at River Street, we might be able to use that to obstruct it," Konekomaru suggested.

The four Exwires took off at a jog, Tsuzo right behind them looking worried. They weren't even halfway to the tree when they saw the transformed streetcar barreling toward them at top speed.

Tsuzo glanced over her shoulder and saw a gaping maw ripping open the air to swallow the tram. "Bro! Off now!" she shouted as she sprinted toward the tram. She summoned her salamander and he burned a hole where the door had been. Tsuzo leapt on board as it steamed past her.

Without hesitation Rin threw himself in the tram's path. "Damn!" Bon swore, scrambling to unseal Kurikara. a split second before the Tram collided with Rin Bon freed the sword. the low flames Rin had drawn past the seal burst into a raging bonfire. Rin bared his fangs in a determined grimace as he tried to hold the tram back. For a moment it was stopped but the asphalt beneath Rin's feet began to give way, his heels dug furrows in the pavement at the car forced him back toward the gate. A mouth opened in the grill and snapped at Rin.

"Izumo, help Tsuzo get them off," Konekomaru ordered. "Bon, shoot that thing! Eyes, mouth anything that might be a vulnerability. I'm going to throw up a barrier in case Rin can't hold it."

Bon yanked his gun free and started firing. "Don't" he countered. "Rin could be crushed between the tram and your barrier."

Konekomaru glanced away, "Better than losing _all _of them to Gehenna," he said then started chanting.

Bon gritted his teeth and tucked Kurikara beneath his arm to aim with both hands as he emptied his clip into the raging demon.

On the tram Shima and Tsuzo stood on either side of Shiemi, defending her with their staves while Shiemi concentrated on drawing the spirits in to the lantern plant Nii had produced.

Izumo summoned Mike and Uke. "Help protect Shiemi," Izumo ordered.

The two familiars glanced around at the situation. "Well, I suppose since it's for that girl who was so nice last time…" Mike insinuated as the pair of Byakko joined the formation around Shiemi. Izumo joined Shiemi at the center of the group to avoid splitting their resources as the tram's deck heaved and groaned.

Outside, Rin growled, the blood vessels stood out in stark relief on his neck and arms as his hands sunk into the grill of the street car. The demon tram's breath blew over him, hot and foul, as it roared it's fury at being held back. Then the strain eased. Rin glanced over and saw Amaimon beside him, the green-haired demon's shoulder braced against the tram, helping Rin to hold it back. "Get your own priestess," the Earth King snarled at the possessed Street Car. "This one's mine."

With Both Amaimon and Rin straining against it they managed to shove the Tram back a few inches. Bon reloaded his gun and walked up to the tram. It glared at him with a malevolent eye.

"We're clear!" they heard Shima shout.

From point blank range Bon unloaded his gun directly into the creature's eye. It bucked and fought to get free but Rin and Amaimon held it in place until, finally, with one last shudder it collapsed into dust. The six Exwires, their teacher and the Hell King stared at each other in a moment of mutual relief.

"I got them all, safe and sound," Shiemi declared holding up Nii-chan and the gently glowing lantern plant.

"You take too many risks," Amaimon informed her. "Call on me first next time." Then he turned and walked away.

"Guess he's not in any hurry to get out of your deal after all," Rin remarked.

* * *

When the time for Rin's next training session arrived he and Bon entered the gym giving Angel uncertain looks. "I got some paint-pellets from the Shooting Range," Bon said.

"Unnecessary," Angel replied haughtily then hesitated and added, "But the gesture is appreciated."

"They're neon green," Rin informed him with a grin. "I think your stupid outfit is going to look way better when Bon actually hits you." He and Angel both switched to bokkens.

The spar progressed much like the previous sessions with Rin being forced to take damage in order to make openings in Angel's defenses. Bon tried to adapt his barriers to trip Angel up while taking occasional pot shots at him in hopes of catching the Paladin by surprise.

"Block with your sword, not your body," Angel instructed. "Your free hand and feet can still be used as weapons."

"Actually Rin-kun is correct," Mephisto said, revealing himself.

"Spying on me?" Angel asked snidely.

"The Koma Sword is Rin's heart, damage to his limbs is less critical," Mephisto continued.

"Matte," Angel commanded, halting the spar for a moment. He stared at Rin for a long time. "The sheath is also a part of his heart, correct?"

Mephisto nodded.

Angel considered the matter for a bit longer then went to the weapons rack and selected a smaller, lighter bokken. "When you're on missions get rid of the bag and secure your sheath properly. I'll train you to fight with a wakizashi in your off-hand for parrying," he told Rin handing him the second sword.

"Once your swordsmanship has improved you may want to consider carrying a second sword as well and only unsealing Kurikara when in dire straights," Mephisto suggested, approving Angel's tactic. He grinned, "Also you might want to figure out how to draw power past the seal without needing to be in a tizzy… It might be good if you started that right away, as you can't draw Kurikara at the moment anyway."

Rin looked down, uncomfortable with the reminder of his current handicap. Bon scowled at Mephisto. "It doesn't matter," he assured Rin. "We can always draw the sword for you."

Rin shook his head determinedly. "No, he's right, I've got to learn to depend on the sword less. Especially now that I'm too screwed up to unlock my powers myself."

* * *

Izumo walked into the Old Dorm's former 1st floor lobby, now the Exwire's favored practice area, carrying a naginata with her. Tsuzo and Shima stopped their staff practice. Izumo bit her lip then took a deep breath. "Can I join you?" she asked. "I've had some training, more for show than for a fight, but I know the basics."

"I didn't know you wanted to go for a Knight Meister," Tsuzo said.

"I don't," Izumo replied. "But Mike and Uke are being a pain, I can't count on them like this. Until this stupid rebellious phase they're going through is dealt with I have to have a back up plan."

"I'll train you as a knight, having more skills never hurt anyone," Tsuzo said. "And Little Brother could use a sparring partner. But you need to work on your relationship with your familiars. I've seen you with them, you need to give something back or they won't want to serve you."

"Mike and Uke are my problem," Izumo snapped. "I just want to know if I'm welcome here."

"Definately!" Shima said enthusiastically. "You gotta wear workout clothes…"

"I think I might have some sweats," Izumo replied, deadpan. She watched Shima's face fall. "Pervert," she said then turned to Tsuzo, "The opportunity to hit him is going to be very good motivation I think."

Shima's older sister laughed. "Welcome to the class," she said. "So little brother, are you motivated not to get hit?"

"Well, I'm not feeling inclined to hold back 'cause she's a girl," Shima replied.


	8. Expanded View

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Notes: ** Apologies for the delay. This next segment just did not come together the way I wanted it to. It needed massive rewriting and of course work goes crazy at the same time.

Also between reading other people's fanfic and needing to look up details for my own I've been getting terribly spoiled about the Illuminati Arc. Vol 12 won't be out until Fall here, so last week I gave in and found a translation online for Vol 12 and 13.

Now that I've read them I'm going to try to incorporate Izumo's backstory info. I don't really have to change the way I see Izumo to use the reveals about her so it's mostly a matter of choosing to stick with cannon now that I'm aware of it. Shima's a bit trickier, I have to change the way I look at the character fairly drastically to include the reveals about him.

I probably won't try to adapt the current part of the Illuminati arc, or if I do it will be similar to what I'm doing with "Staring into the Abyss" where Egin's there, his goal is the same as in cannon but the timeline has been shifted considerably so Yukio's involvement with him doesn't have much in common with the plot line from the Anime. I've already got a mad scientist facility performing torturous experiments, I don't need another. I can't merge the Illuminati Facility and Egin's Facility because their goals are in direct opposition even if their methods have a lot in common.

At the moment I have fairly complete outlines for the rest of "Staring into the Abyss" and "Walk me through the Valley" which adapt the Kyoto arc for this AU. There won't be much showing up from the Illuminati arc any time soon, excluding Izumo's backstory.

**Chapter Eight: Expanded View**

"So what has everyone found?" Bon asked. "Are there any other threats on campus we should be taking care of besides the Mansion and the Wunderkammer?"

"Um…" Shiemi began, she flushed with embarrassment. "A few of the students described the Mansion to me, it's not a threat, it's- Well actually, it's um, my house. I had no idea you couldn't get to it without the Keys."

The other Exwires all stared at her in disbelief. "Okay, I guess we can cross that off the list," Bon said after a few moments.

A small white dog wandered into the room. Rin's eyes narrowed.

"The Wunderkammer is a room that shouldn't exist," Konekomaru reported. "Occasionally students find a door where there was never a door before. The ones that have gone inside describe a room filled to the bursting with things that they can't comprehend."

"You got Koneko to do your homework!" Shima exclaimed staring at Bon with a combination of admiration, disbelief and outrage.

Bon frowned. "No one told us the Street Car was killing people while they were waiting until they decided we were ready to deal with it," he said. "This is our school, our classmates, our friends. We need to figure out if there's anything else on campus threatening them and deal with it. We can't trust our teachers to tell us what's going on. Limiting the research team to just Rin and I because of a class assignment would have been stupid."

"So what did the two of you find?" Shima challenged.

Bon sighed. "Nothing really serious but there's a handful of normal students at the Academy who've gotten a Masho at some point. You know how low-level demons get; they'll pick on anyone who can see them because there's not much else they can do."

Rin turned and glared at the little dog. "No one's doing anything to help," he said. "They're scared. They think they're going crazy. They see stuff nobody else can, they don't know why, they don't know what's going on. It's not right."

The other Exwires followed the direction of Rin's gaze. "Oooh," Izumo exclaimed as she knelt down by the dog. "Are you lost?" she asked scratching behind it's ears.

"Don't-" Rin began.

The dog disappeared in a puff of purple smoke only to be replaced by their headmaster. Izumo stumbled back in shock.

Mephisto grinned at her. "So you're a dog person, good choice."

"Why are you wandering around like that causing trouble?" Rin demanded.

"Just checking in on my little students," Mephisto replied with a huge smile that only made the Exwires nervous. "By the way the Wunderkammer is my practical joke collection, I'd prefer that you _don't_ break it. I declare your homework assignment complete and come bearing grades!"

He waved the Exwires toward their seats.

"Miwa-san and Izumo-san receive full marks for doing proper preparation before engaging their targets," Mephisto announced as he took his place at the front of the classroom. He wrote a large 100% on the board beside Konekomaru and Izumo's names, then drew some hearts and smiley faces around it. "Despite their lack of preparation Shima-san and Moriyama-san managed to deal with one of their assignments without aid. Moriyama-san's decision to prioritize saving the souls trapped on the phantom tram over preventing it from taking new victims and risking her own life and that of her teammates in the process is a bit controversial among the faculty. I, personally, agree with her decision but then I know things her other instructors are unaware of. The two of you get a 95% for the toilet spirit and a 70% for the Tram plus a few bonus points for the aid you provided against the portrait for a final score of 85%."

"What do you know that they don't?" Bon demanded.

Mephisto's smile practically sparkled. "More than I could possibly tell you," he replied.

Konekomaru put a hand on Bon's shoulder before the glowering teen could explode. "Specifically about Shiemi's decision. Why do you think she made the right choice?"

"The three of you should know," Mephisto said singling out the Myodha boys with his gaze. He waited expectantly.

"Reincarnation," Bon said after a moment. "The tram had frozen them in a particular moment of time, preventing them from moving on to their next life. But destroying those souls would have removed all future possibilities for them. Even if other people died to save the souls they would still have some future in a different life, but they had to be freed."

"Very good," Mephisto praised. "That doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of your own lives, there is much to be done before you move on, but when a soul is destroyed something completely irreplaceable is lost."

"Now on to our last team. You went into situations unaware of your own limitations and ignorant of what you faced. Despite that you required only minimal aid in resolving your assignment… even if you did smash my statue in the process. You leapt to the aid of your friends and learned to work around your limitations as you discovered them. You took the lessons from your assignment and applied them to the larger world. You received a 75% on your defeat of the Statue..."

"We only got one assignment," Bon immediately protested. "Everyone else got to average their scores."

"But with the aggregated pluses and minus from your actions relating to the larger assignment of resolving the Seven School Mysteries your final score is 83%," Mephisto continued as if Bon hadn't spoken.

Rin grinned, 'A 'B' that's pretty good.'

'I got the lowest score in class!' Bon despaired. "If we do find something else on campus to deal with can that count as extra credit?" he asked.

* * *

The next day Bon was waiting impatiently outside of the school kitchen when Rin finished with Itamae for the day. As soon as the dark haired boy stepped through the door Bon grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off to a quiet corner of the cafeteria. "Mephisto agreed we could have extra credit for helping with the normal students who have a masho," he informed Rin. "We are going to redeem ourselves from getting the lowest score in class."

"You worry too much about grades," Rin sighed. "We passed didn't we?"

Bon glared darkly at him.

Rin held up his hands in surrender. "I wanna help those guys; it sucks, what's happening to them. I was thinking about having a _talk_ with some of the low-levels who've been tormenting them even before you said anything." Rin bared his fangs and a bit of flame showed in the depths of his eyes as he mentioned 'talking' to the demons about their bullying.

"Okay, you do that," Bon said. "I'm going to place some additional wards around their dorms. The stuff Mephisto's got up is all about keeping out the really dangerous demons. He ignores the more harmless ones, but they still scare people who don't know any better. Also to get the extra credit Mephisto wants an evaluation of each of the students before the end of the term. I think the True Cross is planning on recruiting some of them for next year's Pages."

"So how do we do that?" Rin asked skeptically.

"First we've got to talk to them." Bon handed Rin a slip of paper. "There are eight students total, we'll each take four. We're not allowed to tell them about Exorcists or demons, but we need to get an idea of how they're coping, how they'd probably respond if we did tell them."

Bon glanced at the clock, "Look I've got to get to class. Start putting a little fear into the demons, we'll talk more later about approaching the people."

After Bon left Rin glanced down at the names he'd been given and did a double take: Sato Aiko, Godain Sei, Kimura Mana and... Shiratori Reiji.

"Shiratori, you gotta be kidding me," Rin muttered. Still, Bon was so worked up about their grade from the Seven Mysteries assignment and he'd sort of implied he'd do it. He didn't like the thought of disappointing Bon. "Well, it's not like I'll need to talk to him more than once to find out if he's still the same old creep he always was," Rin told himself.

* * *

On his way downstairs to start breakfast Saturday Rin saw Izumo walking toward the park across from the old dorm. She was dressed in the traditional attire of a Miko and carrying a large box. Rin watched curiously as she made several more trips from the dorm with other items. When several minutes passed and Izumo didn't come back for something else Rin's curiosity got the better of him. He turned off the stove and headed after her.

Rin found Izumo down by the lively brook that crossed the campus. She had summoned her two familiars and was performing a very formal purification, chanting softly as she poured water from the brook over herself. Miko and Uke sat on their haunches watching her with head cocked to the side. After she was done, Izumo set two saucers before each of the Byakko and with great ceremony she served them each some rice and sake.

"Well, she did remember," Uke commented as the two Byakko examined the offering.

"I suppose it's better than nothing," Mike agreed. "But getting up so early to get it over with… Maybe she's ashamed."

"Or getting it out of the way so she can move on to things _she _thinks are important," Uke suggested.

Izumo spotted Rin lurking in the bushes. "What?" she demanded irritably.

"Sorry, I was curious," Rin admitted. He glanced at the Byakko. "They sound kinda like my dad whining about people who only show up for Mass at Christmas and Easter."

Izumo flushed. "It's Inari's festival day," she muttered. "I felt like I should do something even though I'm not at my temple."

Rin refrained from saying anything.

"If you really want to do something, show us what you remember for the dance," Mike suggested.

"I thought I wasn't cute enough," Izumo accused, old hurt laying her voice.

The two Byakko squirmed uncomfortably, their tails tucked under their bodies. "Perhaps we were a bit hasty," Uke offered repentantly.

"I don't remember anymore," Izumo said stiffly and she turned and walked away.

* * *

Toward the end of the following week Rin stared at list of names in his hand. He knew he should get started on talking to them, he'd run out of reasons to put it off.

He had made surprisingly good progress on convincing the demons on campus to back off. Rin approached the issue using the same tactics he'd developed for dealing with human bullies years ago, but with better results. After the first few 'conversations' Rin realized that where the human bullies had seen a fairly slight guy; smaller, younger and less well-armed than themselves and with fewer allies; the low-level demons saw the son of Satan, wielder of the blue flame and not someone they wanted to mess with. With human bullies Rin had always ended up needing to prove that he should be taken seriously and then, once he'd beaten them up a couple times, their pride would be involved and they'd just keep coming after him. It kept the bullies focused on him, not on Yukio or other kids, which accomplished Rin's initial goal, but it only added to the endless cycle of fights that had caused Shiro to despair of him more than once. With low-level demons both proof and pride could be skipped and they were only too happy to spread the message that the True Cross students were off limits in hopes of currying favor with Rin. The only remaining problem was the demons who were too mindless to understand why Rin wasn't happy with them.

Which meant Rin needed to talk to his four so Bon could get his extra-credit. Then Bon wouldn't feel like being paired with Rin was dragging down his all-important grades. Rin had a good idea of how talking to Shiratori was going to go and he was pretty sure the True Cross would have a problem with him getting into fights with normal students. 'Might be a more certain means of suicide than trying to drown in holy water,' Rin thought.

Sato Aiko and Kimura Mana were both girls, girls Rin had never met before. Rin turned pale at the thought of just going up and starting a conversation with them. 'What do you talk to girls about?' Rin wondered. 'How do you talk to girls? Maybe I can talk to Shima, he doesn't seem to have any problems finding the nerve to go up to them… walking away without getting slapped, that's a bit harder for him.'

That left Godain Sei. He wasn't a girl and he wasn't Shiratori Reiji, but he was a normal guy. Not an Exorcist. Outside of Itamae, who knew about demons, Rin couldn't to remember the last time he'd talked to a normal person. Certainly not since he'd dropped out of the Academy classes. Even if he included Fall term Rin had trouble thinking of a time he'd talked with someone normal. Maybe he'd answered -failed to answer- a teacher's question once or twice. Maybe he'd said 'hi' to the cashier at the grocery story occasionally, or maybe he hadn't. He vaguely remembered being surrounded by a bunch of people the day before Kuro died and he tried to kill himself, but even the part of November that he'd been conscious for was a hazy mess of feeling sick, hurt and tired, of long stretches of being disconnected from reality broken by brief, nightmarish flashes of clarity. Rin remembered how strange and notable it had been when his classmates asked him about the cast on his leg at the beginning of fall term and realized those might have been the only real conversations he'd had with non-Exorcists since the day Yukio had told him to 'just die'.

Rin glanced down and saw blood welling up from scratches he'd inflicted on his arm and grimaced. The thought of talking to someone normal, someone who might reject him out of hand and prove that everything Yukio had said was true left him wishing for holy water. He felt like ants were crawling across his skin. 'I should go ask Koneko for a another massage,' Rin thought with a sigh.

Then Rin looked across the square to the steps were Godain was hunched over his books and

squared his shoulders determinedly. Koneko said Yukio had encouraged Rin to avoid being touched so that he could 'reward' Rin for purifying himself with holy water by tending to the resultant injuries. 'I'm going to go over there and talking to Godain,' Rin told himself. 'Then I'll ask Koneko for a massage, it'll be my reward for talking to someone I don't know… And if he automatically hates me, then I'll really need the reminder that my friends aren't revolted by me.'

Rin took a deep breath and walked across the square. He sat down by Godain and waited for a few minutes until the other boy glanced at him. "Hi," Rin said pasting on an uncertain smile. "I'm Okumura Rin."

"Godain Sei, pleased to meet you," the other boy replied automatically. A coal tar floated past them and Godain cringed. Rin scowled, he reached swatted the little demon away. Godain's eyes widened. "You see them too!"

Rin flushed remembering he wasn't supposed tell the normal students that he knew about demons, then he gave a mental shrug, 'Mephisto told Bon to tell me not to tell, I didn't actually agree to anything.'

"Those ones aren't much different from flies. Big, ugly flies but still flies," he said.

Godain smiled tentatively.

Rin walked back to the dorm ten minutes later feeling like he'd made a new friend.

* * *

After spending the morning helping her mother at the Exorcist Shoppe Shiemi hurried back to the dorm to check on the new seedlings in her greenhouse.

Since moving into the old dorm in January Shiemi's greenhouse had been steadily expanding. All of the south side rooms on the girls' third floor were over run with greenery and she'd begun expanding into the empty rooms on the boys' second floor. Baby greenman outnumbered the mice in the old dorm ten to one.

Shiemi had beds of new sprouts that would be transplanted to her garden in another month. She had exotic tropical plants that would never survive Tokyo's natural climate. She had three rooms of medicinal herb useful for treating templaits. Under Nagatomo's direction she was cultivating a Dekalp and several other demon plants, taming them.

Shiemi opened the door to the room across the hall from her own room and found Amaimon lounging in the window, basking in the afternoon sun. He was using his favorite hobgoblin as a pillow.

"Oh!" Shiemi exclaimed in surprise.

Amaimon sat up. "This place isn't bad. None of that annoying crap that Big Brother had fits over if I touch. I'm moving in," he declared.

"You can't!" Shiemi protested. "Not this room! This is the girls' floor!"

Amaimon blinked at her. "I like this one best. The plants are strongest here."

Shiemi flushed. "Well- You absolutely having to use the bathroom downstairs," she insisted.

"Why?" Amaimon asked.

"Because the one on this floor is the girls' restroom!" Shiemi exclaimed as she turned beet red.

Amaimon walked over and peered at her closely. "You're changing colors," he pointed out, which only made Shiemi blush more. "What do you do in a bathroom anyway?"

Shiemi stared at him in disbelief, forgetting even to be embarrassed.

"Well?" Amaimon demanded.

"If you promise to stay out of the girls' bathroom I'll tell you," Shiemi offered.

"Agreed," Amaimon sealed the deal.

"First it's where we wash up," Shiemi began. "We take off our clothes there, that's why boys shouldn't go in the girls' bathroom or vise-versa: You might see someone naked!"

Amaimon stared at her intently. "That's a taboo right?"

Shiemi nodded firmly.

"It's good I like these clothes then," Amaimon decided. He gesturing to his waistcoat and ragged suit jacket. "I've kept them from rotting for almost a hundred and fifty years now," he added proudly.

Shiemi looked horrified. "But you take you take your outfit off to bath don't you?"

"Why?"

"You wait here," Shiemi ordered then went and checked the bathroom. "It's okay, Paku-chan and Izumo-chan are out."

"Can't, I promised," Amaimon replied.

"Ooooh!" Shiemi groaned. "And I can't go in a boys' restroom." She thought for several minutes. "There's another bathroom no one uses," she said quietly. "You need to learn proper hygiene, it's for your health," she added apparently addressing her own reservations.

Amaimon followed her up to the fourth floor. Shiemi led him into the bathroom then gave him a thorough explanation of how one washed up, while showing him the various necessary implements. Then she went on to the brushing of teeth and the need for multiple sets of clothing so that a person had something to wear while washing clothes. The Earth King demonstrated his ability to simply command the dirt to get off him and his clothes.

"But there's still sweat and and germ. And you have to use water!" Shiemi insisted.

"What are these for?" Amaimon asked pointing to the stalls. "You're turning colors again," he added a moment later.

"When you -um- go to the bathroom that's where you -um- do it," Shiemi stammered.

"We 'went to the bathroom' when we came in didn't we?" Amaimon asked in confusion.

"Er- um- no. I -um- mean when you," Shiemi wonder if spontaneous combustion due to sheer embarrassment was a danger. "When you defecate," she whispered.

Amaimon stared at her blankly.

"After you eat, the parts that don't get digested, they have to come back out," Shiemi tried again.

Amaimon shook his head. "I've never done that, it sounds gross."

"But what happens to all that candy you eat?" Shiemi couldn't help but ask.

Amaimon shrugged. "Maybe it's just living human bodies that do that," he reasoned.

"You're not…" Shiemi asked.

Amaimon shook his head again. "Big Brother thinks it's a good experience to cohabitate with a human soul. Eventually the body gets old and dies and then it's your completely to reshape as you like but I think it's a pain. I think Big Brother even let his host have control most of the time back when it was alive, so he could study it from the inside out." Amaimon wrinkled his nose, clearly bewildered by Mephisto's peculiarities.

"This body was sacrificed to me," he went on after a moment. "His people dedicated him to me. They buried him alive so they wouldn't have earthquakes. Since I wanted to see Assiah anyway I decided to take him. But even though he was mine he fought when I tried to possess him. He suffocated before I gained enough control of his body to break the entombment."

Shiemi's hands covered her mouth. "That poor person."

Amaimon shrugged. "It worked out. I don't think I'd have liked that defecating thing. I never saw Big Brother do that, he must have stopped it when his host passed on. I certainly would." He paused for a moment then frowned. "He does spend time in the bathroom and he shuts me out. He said it was none of my business what happened in there."

While Shiemi tried to digest what she'd been told Amaimon continued his inspection of the bathroom. Shiemi hadn't mentioned the large cistern or even looked at it but he assumed it had a purpose apart from boiling suicidal demons. "What do you normally do with that?" he asked.

Shiemi bit her lip, then in a low, tight voice she said, "Normally it's for soaking after you're clean. Normally there shouldn't be any holy water in it. Normally-" she broke off.

"I hate this room," she said flatly. "I hate that Rin still has to live in this building. I hate thinking about this room."

Amaimon tilted his head to the side and waited.

"I was always sick or scared or guilty," Shiemi said. "I couldn't go out and be part of the world like everyone else. Then I met Okumura Yukio. He was my age but he was already an Exorcist; he'd done so much. He used to tutor me, and I'd ask him questions about things he'd done or seen. He made my little world just a bit bigger and I loved him for that."

Shiemi's fists clenched. "Then he tried to make Rin like I used to be: sick and scared and guilty. He turned this room into a torture chamber to make Rin's world small and I'll never forgive him for that."


	9. Old Acquaintances

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Nine: Old Acquaintances **

"Man, I am going to miss you working in the cafeteria next term," Shima declared sitting back and patting his belly as the Exwires finished their lunch. "There's no way any of us could afford to eat like this if we didn't get to eat your 'mistakes' for free."

Rin grinned. "It was really great of Itamae to say I could take a break and eat with you guys before starting the dishes."

"I'll miss our afternoon study hall next term," Shiemi declared. "I'll be the only one of us who isn't a regular student at the Academy again."

"I don't miss sitting in lame boring classes at all," Rin said. "I learn way more from Itamae than I ever did in class. Maybe Mephisto'll let me homeschool with you instead of going back."

Izumo scowled. "Not if he wants you to graduate," she said crossly. "You always slack off if you don't like a subject."

"It's true," Konekomaru agreed apologetically and Bon nodded. "You do everything short of covering your ears and shouting 'la-la-la can't hear you' when we try to get you to pass the Aria segment of Exorcist Exam's basic competencies. Itamae-san only has to teach you a subject you love. Speaking of which, your cooking 'mistakes' are better than the food in most restaurants."

"Seriously," Bon agreed. "Once we get posted to Kyoto I'm going to have to watch my mom or she'll try to steal you for the Ryokan." He made a disgusted face. "She and Dad were always trying to get me to take over running the Inn for Mom instead of being an Exorcist."

"No way!" Rin exclaimed staring at Bon with wide eyes. He couldn't picture his Aria as anything else.

"Just cause my dad's lazy, doesn't mean I am," Bon complained, scowling bitterly. "Sometimes I think he merged us with the True Cross just to get out of his responsibilities."

Rin winced.

"The Myodha head priests have led our religion and have dealt with demons in the Kyoto region since the Heian period," Konekomaru explained. He glanced at Rin and hesitated for a moment then continued. "We lost a lot of people to the Blue Night and afterwards our temple lost followers, we didn't have the manpower or the funds to see to our responsibilities. That's why Bon's father invited the True Cross in. But the True Cross ultimately answers to the Pope, so he also divided the Myodha's exorcists from our religion. Ossama is still the head of our religion and not a member of the True Cross. Shima's father is an Upper First Class Exorcist in the True Cross and the head of the Kyoto branch."

"Bon's parents may want him to run an inn, but the rest of the Myodha want him to succeed his father," Shima added. "And Bon wants my dad's job… Which would be a disaster."

"My grandfather did both," Bon muttered.

Konekomaru sighed. He turned to Rin, "Bon's not kidding when he threatens to break the alliance between the Myodha and the True Cross. If he really does try to do both, he'll either _have _to break the alliance or he'll merge us completely with the True Cross."

The bell rang announcing the end of lunch break. As the Exwires packed up Rin grabbed Shima's arm and pulled him aside. "I need your help with something," he said.

Shima looked curious. So did Izumo, who was standing off to one side waiting for Rin to walk her to class.

"I gotta talk to these two girls," Rin explained. "Help?"

Shima grinned, "I am definitely your man."

Izumo spun on her heel and stomped off. Rin watched her stalk away with a puzzled expression on his face. Then he shrugged and turned toward the dishes that were waiting for him.

On his way back to the school kitchen Rin saw Shiratori Reiji in the alley behind the cafeteria. The blond boy was in the middle of breaking a coal tar's tail. Shiratori held the little thing up to get a better look at it's expression as it shrieked in pain.

Rin grimaced, as he'd told Godain coal tars were the flies of the demon world, but then he'd never liked seeing Shiratori rip the wings off flies when they'd been in grade school either. Before Shiratori really noticed that he had been observed, Rin grabbed Shiratori's arm and twisted it behind his back, forcing him to drop the little demon. The coal tar scurried away to lick its wounds.

Slowly the Shiratori glanced up and grinned predatorily as he recognized Rin. "Same old Okumura, always out to spoil my fun."

"Yeah, your idea of fun hasn't changed much either," Rin replied warily. He let go of Shiratori and stepped back a few paces.

"Naw, these days I play with demons," Shiratori disagreed. "You saw it yourself, right? If other people could see 'em they'd thank me." He gave Rin another lazy smile. " 'Member how everyone always used to call you a demon? If you didn't know, it meant they'd rather you just didn't exist. I make demons go away… eventually, when I'm done playing. They ought to call me a hero."

Shiratori straightened and sauntered over to Rin. Rin raised his chin and held his ground even as the other boy invaded his personal space. Shiratori reached out and brushed Rin's hair away from the point of his ear. Rin flinched, in the back of his head he realized he was waiting for Shiratori to transform into a demon again.

"I heard that brother of yours flunked out," Shiratori remarked as he took a flask out of his pocket. "And you're working in the kitchens, guess you're finally starting to figure out your place."

"You heard wrong. Yukio's doing a foreign exchange with another True Cross Academy," Rin replied. "And do you really want to get into this? I mean I don't see three or four guys standing by to try and hold me down for you."

Shiratori threw the contents of the flask in Rin's face. Instantly Rin was overwhelmed with the familiar sensation of holy water burning away the demon in him. In his head he heard Yukio saying "Every minute I'm with you I sense the evil in you and it makes me want to lash out at you. Being near you makes me sick."

Distantly he heard a scuffle and someone shouting. Then he was being hustled in the kitchen and his head was shoved beneath a tap. 'Itamae,' Rin realized.

A door creaked open. "You can't treat me like that! Do you have any idea who my parents are?" Shiratori whined.

"You stay put," Itamae ordered giving Rin a small pat on the back as he stepped away from the sink. "Punk, I don't give a damn who your parents are. Get the hell out of my kitchen while you still have the option of walking out."

"My parents-"

"Let me tell you a secret," Itamae interrupted. "If the only noteworthy thing about you is your family name that means you are nothing more than a leech feeding off of your parents' accomplishments. Now, last chance to get out under your own power."

"I'm a student here, you're just the help," Shiratori declared.

"Ukobach, could you take out this piece of trash while I see to our Rin-kun?"

'Shiratori never had been particularly smart,' Rin thought as he heard a heavy tread and knuckles cracking like gunfire. There were a few bangs and crashes and Rin was fairly sure that the last bang he heard was the dumpster lid behind the kitchen slamming shut.

Itamae sat Rin on a stool and examined the damage. "Looks like he got a pretty good shot on your eyes," the chef worried.

Rin smiled reassuringly, "It's no big deal, I'll be healed by morning."

"I'd feel better about that if your eyes were focusing," Itamae replied.

"Okay, maybe the day after," Rin admitted. "I have gotten holy water in my eyes before. No worries. But -um- well, he was telling the truth about his parents. They've got more money than they know what to do with and they don't mind funding his grudges. I don't want you to get in trouble for me."

Itamae snorted. "At the top of my game I was requested by the Emperor himself. If that useless brat wants to play influence games with me he'll be in so far over his head that the Mariana Trench will seem like a puddle in comparison."

Rin was silent for a few minutes then he asked. "Do you miss it?"

"Hell no," Itamae replied immediately. "Sometimes you make a bet precisely because you're going to lose it. Come on kiddo, let's get you home."

"You don't have to walk me home," Rin protested when he realized Itamae meant to do exactly that.

"Sure I don't," Itamae disagreed, putting a supportive, guiding hand under Rin's elbow.

Rin squinted fiercely. "Really, I can see… big stuff anyway."

"Mmm-hn." Itamae continued guiding Rin all the way back to the Old Dorm.

Shiemi was in the first floor lobby reviewing her study plans for her Doctor's Meister with her mentor; an older woman who's greying hair had been pulled back into severe bun. Shiemi gasped when she saw Rin's burned face and unfocused gaze. The older doctor appraised him coolly. "Looks like you've got a pop-quiz on your hands," she said to Shiemi. "Well? What treatment do you recommend?"

Shiemi took a deep breath. "A compress to treat his eyes," she decided. "Eyebright, Chamomile and Spotted Alder… No, that's Witch Hazel, not safe for Rin," Shiemi corrected herself. "I'll substitute Marigold?"

The older woman nodded.

"Fresh would be best, I've got them in my greenhouse," Shiemi exclaimed as she was running toward the stairs.

Itamae sat Rin on one of the sofas then walked over to the Doctor. "He's not classroom assignment," Itamae said quietly but with a dark look.

"Of course he is," the Doctor said. "They're an Exwire team. I would be negligent if I passed up an opportunity to evaluate how she functions in her role." At Itamae's disapproving look, she added, "I would have stopped her from treating him with Witch Hazel. Moriyama-san's treatment will speed his healing quite nicely. So far the only thing I'd grade her down for is forgetting an analgesic, but the demon-boy doesn't seem particularly bothered by pain."

A few moments later Shiemi all but flew back down the steps. She was carrying a mortar and pestle, using it as a basket for her herbs. Amaimon followed her carrying a bowl of steaming water.

While Shiemi ground the herbs into a paste Amaimon sauntered over to peer at Rin, "So you found a way around the oath you gave Big Brother?" he asked without any real curiosity.

Shiemi froze.

"No, um, I was ran into this guy from my old middle school," Rin stammered guiltily. "I guess he wanted to see if the old rumors about me being a demon were true."

Itamae shook his head at Rin's minimization of the situation.

Shiemi's shoulders relaxed. She spooned some of the paste from her mortar into a cloth, then folded it up and soaked the compress in the water, "Lay back," she told Rin pushing him flat and placing the warm compress over his burnt face and eyes.

"Does your greenhouse have any Valerian?" the doctor suggested.

"Oh!" Shiemi's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh Rin, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. Before she could go for the herb Nii-chan handed her a pungent root. Shiemi smiled at her familiar gratefully then handed the root to Rin. "Chew on this for a bit," she instructed.

A short while later the potent herb sent Rin into a deep slumber.

* * *

"What trouble did you get Rin into?" Izumo hissed glaring at Shima. The Exwire's group class had started fifteen minutes earlier and there was no sign of either Rin or Shiemi.

"Young lady, do you have some more pressing concern than passing my class?" Professor Shiku asked disapprovingly.

Izumo scowled. "Yes, that prevert took Rin to talk to some strange girl and now he's missing!" she announced.

"Hey!" Shima protested. "I haven't seen Rin since lunch. Get a grip on your jealous fantasies."

Izumo flushed hotly. "I know what I heard," she insisted.

"Shiemi's missing too," Konekomaru said. "Rin might not worry about being tardy, but Shiemi would."

"If you're not going to pay attention to me, what are you even doing here?" Shiku snapped.

"Honestly I'm not sure," Bon replied. "Rin and Shiemi are missing, we should be out looking for them not sitting around here." He got up and walked out. It didn't take long for the rest of the Exwires to follow him.

"Before we jump to any conclusions we should check the dorm," Konekomaru said.

Bon nodded, "Even if they aren't there, we might find some clue about where they went."

"You two know it's not my fault, right?" Shima asked. "I told Rin I'd help him talk to some girl, two girls he said, but I haven't seen him since lunch."

"It's probably the girls with a masho that he was supposed to check on," Bon reasoned. "He said it went pretty well when he talked to Godain. Talking to the guy went pretty well anyway; I guess Rin was worried he'd hate him on sight or something; but Godain's not doing so good. He basically told Rin he couldn't take seeing demons anymore."

Izumo glanced away guiltily.

Nagatomo spotted them as they hurried across campus. "Aren't you guys supposed to be in class?" he asked as he intercepted them.

"Shiemi and Rin are missing," Bon said.

They arrived at the dorm a short while later to find Rin sleeping on a sofa with Shiemi studying nearby. Amaimon was perched on the back of Shiemi's chair peering at her book over her shoulder.

"You two worried us sick!" Bon exclaimed.

Shiemi glanced at Rin and put her finger to her lips. "In the kitchen," she whispered. Then went to change the compress over Rin's eyes.

Izumo turned pale at the sight of Rin's burnt face. "What happened?" Bon demanded.

"She said hush," Amaimon announced herding everyone into the kitchen.

"How did Rin get around his oath to Sir Pheles?" Konekomaru asked once they were in the kitchen.

"He didn't," Shiemi then repeated what Itamae had told her.

"I offered to kill this Shiratori-person for her," Amaimon said once Shiemi finished. "She wouldn't let me," he pouted.

"What would your older brother say if you harmed one of his students?" Konekomaru reminded Amaimon.

The Earth King shrugged. "Special circumstances. I didn't make an oath to Big Brother, he just said he'd hurt me if I did, but he probably wouldn't hurt me_ badly _if I had my priestess' blessing." He looked to Shiemi, she shook her head resolutely.

"You said the boy's name was Shiratori? Shiratori Reiji?" Nagatomo asked frowning.

"He's one of the kids on campus with a masho," Bon said. "You know him."

"He and Rin have a history," Nagatomo said, his voice tight.

"Rin didn't say anything," Bon said with a frown.

Nagatomo took a deep breath. "Rin's temper was always a huge concern for us at the monastery. Looking back, I realize most of it was over normal things for a child to be upset over, although it never seemed normal given Rin's strength and for those of us who were aware of his parentage… We worried, we saw signs," he sighed. "We did everything we could to discourage Rin from fighting with other children. When he was ten Rin suddenly turned sullen, he didn't stop getting into fights but he stopped trying to explain. I think he decided that we didn't care about his reasons, so he stopped trying to defend himself, he just took his penance and carried on."

Bon frowned.

"Shiratori Reiji moved into the area about that same time," Nagatomo continued. "It was hate at first sight between him and Rin. The Shiratoris were well-off and respected, Rin had always been considered a trouble-maker at school. The fights between them went on for a few months, with Rin getting more and more serious punishments from his teachers, even from us, but nothing stopped the fights. Rin broke Shiratori's arm at one point, he had fairly good control over his strength by then so it probably wasn't an accident. After that Father Fujimoto started getting suspicious that there was something really wrong, but Rin wouldn't talk to us."

"He didn't think you'd believe him," Shima guessed.

Nagatomo nodded regretfully. "Then one afternoon Yukio ran home from school, he told Father Fujimoto that Rin and Shiratori were going to fight again, that Shiratori had been hurting a puppy. Yukio had told us before that Shiratori did bad things but no one really heard what he was saying until then, the Shiratoris were a respected family. Father Fujimoto went back to school with Yukio, he and one of Rin's teachers found the two of them and the puppy." Nagatomo stopped for a moment and looked away. "The puppy was dead, it had been skinned alive before someone, probably Rin, took mercy on the poor thing and broke it's neck."

Izumo put her hand over her mouth.

"Rin was throwing up blood when they found them, trauma induced shock. He threw up so violently that it ruptured blood vessels in his throat. It was nearly a month before Rin could keep much of anything down and he had horrible nightmares, he was so upset about the puppy. Father Fujimoto said when they found them Shiratori was just standing there watching and smiling while Rin was all but choking on his own blood."

Shiemi's eyes watered. "Could I just maim him a little?" Amaimon asked hopefully. Shiemi shook her head then dropped her gaze to the floor before Amaimon could see the lack of conviction in her eyes.

"Shiratori's parents hired a lawyer who tried to suggested it had been Rin who tortured that puppy, but even with Rin's reputation no one believed it. Not when he was so obviously traumatized by what had happened. Shiratori ended up spending the following year in a psychiatric ward, not that it did any good. When he came back the only thing that had changed was the teachers didn't side with him anymore. Instead they just ignored his and Rin's fights altogether."

"So this Shiratori is a sociopath who has a personal problem with Rin and now he knows Rin's a demon," Konekomaru summed up.

"We're going to have to do something about him," Bon decided. Before Amaimon could offer his preferred suggestions Bon added, "No killing, no maiming, but could we get him expelled?"

"Not tonight," Nagatomo said. "Tonight, let's get Rin up to his bed and let him sleep off his injuries."

Bon sighed. "Yeah, I got it." He walked back into the lobby and picked Rin up. "Someone get the doors for me." He said. Then with a tiny hint of a smile he added, "Rin's not all skin and bones anymore, this is harder than it was last term."

**Notes: ** My impression from the end of the Kyoto Arc is that Bon's father is actually the ultimate authority within the Myodha but the True Cross Order and Bon's generation aren't aware of that. The kids are probably kept in the dark so they have less to lie about when they're getting trained. I get the idea that when the Myodha invited the True Cross in there was less of a transfer of power than the True Cross thinks there was.


	10. Circumvention

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Ten: Circumvention**

After Bon had put Rin to bed Izumo excused herself claiming she was too tired to bother with dinner. Later that night, when she heard Paku and Shiemi climbing the stairs Izumo crawled into bed and pulled her comforter up over her head.

Even through the covers she could feel Paku watching her. After a few minutes Paku said softly, "If you want to talk…" She waited for several minutes and Izumo considered pretending to snore.

Eventually Paku gathered up her bath supplies. When she got back from the bathroom Izumo remained stubbornly silent until she heard her friend's breathing deepen as sleep claimed her. Then Izumo threw off her blankets and went back to sitting in the window.

She stared out over the moon-lit grounds, lost in thought until the early hours of the morning. With the moon hanging low over the horizon Izumo slipped out of the dorm and down to the creek that ran through the campus. There she summoned her familiars.

Uke and Mike watched her uncertainly.

"Rin's hurt," Izumo said. "I want one of you to look out for him, at least until his eyes heal. If you do I'll see what I can remember of the dance." She gave the two byakko a challenging glare. "Over spring break I'll perform it for you. I may not be any good but I'll do my best."

Uke and Mike exchanged a long look. "We'll take turns," Mike said. "One of us will watch him while the other will wait in the Spirit World for your call. We'll let you know when we want to trade."

"Thank you for assisting me," Izumo replied with stiff formality.

"We were friends once," Uke said quietly.

"We're family," Izumo corrected. "Then and now, but we all know that you can't count on family to be there when you need them."

* * *

Rin sighed in sleepy relief as Bon changed the compress over his eyes, but with the valerian running through his system he didn't really wake up.

"_Doesn't that feel so much better now?" Yukio asked, there was a hint of warmth in his voice as he rubbed something soothing onto Rin's burns. "Aren't you glad you finally found a way to burn away some of that evil tainting you?"_

_Yukio leaned down, his arms sliding over Rin's shoulders until he was almost hugging his twin. His breath was warm against Rin's ear as he whispered, "I'm sure Shiratori would do it again if you just asked."_

When Rin's dreams woke him the dorm room was dark, except for a pool of light at the desk shining on the head of a figure sleeping on his books. Rin squinted blurrily, for a moment he was certain it was Yukio. For a moment the last few months, maybe even the last year was just a dream. It was him and Yukio and everything was okay. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, grabbed a blanket and stumbled over to the desk to rescue Yukio's glasses from getting bent by being slept on like he had done a hundred times before.

Only it was Bon, not Yukio, who had fallen asleep over his books. Rin blinked, his nose wrinkled up in a puzzled expression. Why was Bon in his room? Where was he anyway? Rin tucked the blanket over Bon's shoulders then stumbled out into the hall. He climbed the stairs slowly, blinking often, up past the girls' floor to the fourth floor. For a moment Rin paused in the doorway, staring at the empty room that used to be his and Yukio's, then he moved on to the bathroom.

Rin had kept a stash of holy water on the ledge hidden behind the mirror. He wasn't sure if his friends had discovered it when they had searched the dorm but even thinking about looking for it triggered the demon-oath he'd been tricked into giving Mephisto.

"_I'm sure Shiratori would do it again if you just asked."_ The remnant of his dream still lingered. Or maybe he was still dreaming. Maybe Yukio was just down the hall getting supplies to patch him up after he was done washing up. Maybe he was still at the Monastery and Shiro was downstairs trying to figure out how to berate him for screwing up yet another job while simultaneously encouraging him to try again. And Yukio, Yukio was gone. He was off studying to be a doctor, his dream. For years Rin had known Yukio would leave him behind. Yukio had a future, he was too smart to be stuck in an endless parade of dead-end jobs. Off at school on his own, not the demon-child's brother anymore, Yukio would be doing great, where-ever he was.

Rin caught sight of himself in the mirror, of the dark snake wrapped loosely around his waist; his tail. In his mind's eye he saw himself wreathed in blue flames, elongated ears and fangs marking him as a demon. The flames, the mark of Satan, coalesced to form horns on his forehead. _Yukio stood behind him in the mirror._ _"Look at you," he accused. "There's nothing left of my nii-san. There's nothing left of you but Satan's son, the son of the man who killed Dad."_

"I can't anymore," Rin protested. "I promised."

"_Because you let them turn you into a demon," Yukio said coldly. "If you'd done more, if you'd listen to me you wouldn't have to abide by demon rules now. But there's still a way… Isn't Mephisto's class all about how to get out of keeping your promises? Shiratori would gladly do what you need."_

Rin had never quite gotten what Mephisto meant by third party intervention in class. It had all sounded like a bunch of arbitrary nonsense. It still didn't make any sense, but while he could barely bring himself to look at the place where he'd hidden his holy water, there wasn't anything stopping him from thinking about provoking Shiratori and seeing if he could get the other boy to douse him with holy water again.

"_Shiratori wouldn't have any trouble doing what I couldn't bring myself to do," Yukio continued. "If you asked right I'm sure he'd hold you down beneath the water until everything demonic about you burned away. Then you'd be my nii-san again."_

Rin shivered, "I can't, I promised."

"_Mephisto tricked you."_

"I promised my friends," Rin protested. "It doesn't matter if I can figure out a way around the demon-oath. I gave my friends my word, you don't go back on your word to your friends!"

"_They'll abandon you eventually. Everyone does."_

Amaimon stepped to the side and Rin walked past him without so much as glancing in his direction. He stared after his younger brother, a lollypop dangling forgotten from the corner of his mouth. "Even odder than Big Brother," he muttered to himself. He'd just watched Rin stare into the bathroom mirror for nearly ten minutes while holding a conversation with an empty room.

* * *

The next morning Rin woke up to the feeling of being stared at.

"Your face looks healed," Bon declared. "How are your eyes?"

Rin mumbled something incomprehensible then rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. His brain felt muzzy and muddled from his drugged sleep but somehow he had the feeling that he didn't want to wake up, didn't want to lose the fog of drowsiness.

Bon leaned out in the hall and shouted, "He's awake!" Turning back to Rin he added. "You've got an appointment with your doctor today. Shiemi's mentor okayed her treatment but you should still get checked up."

Memories slowly filtered back in: The confrontation with Shiratori. Getting a flask of holy water thrown in his face. Yukio, or some sort of dream-Yukio, pointing out that he could get around his promise to Mephisto if he really wanted to. Rin sat up slowly, his face stung a little from healing burns, but the rest of his body felt like it was covered in slime and crawling with insects by contrast. It had been so long since he's been able to clean himself properly. 'You'd upset your friends,' Rin reminded himself. 'It's all in your head.'

Shiemi poked her head in the door. She smiled gently as she sat down on the bed beside Rin. "How many fingers?" she asked.

Rin squinted a bit before answering, "Three?"

"Still blurry?" Shiemi asked sympathetically.

"It's not bad," Rin insisted, trying to put the feel of evil oozing over his skin out of his mind. He smiled for Shiemi, "Way better than yesterday. Thanks for patching me up."

Shiemi ducked her head shyly.

"Koneko and Shima are taking care of breakfast," Bon reported. Then with a scowl he added, "They kicked me out of the kitchen."

"They aren't dumb," Rin remarked. Thinking about the many, many disasters that befell Bon in the kitchen helped distract him from the stark difference between the feel of his face and the rest of his skin.

"There's no reason I can't cook," Bon exclaimed.

Rin and Shiemi both found themselves wondering if Bon meant that he couldn't explain why his every attempt at cooking turned into such a spectacular failure or if he were simply in denial.

When they got downstairs Rin was surprised to see Mike waiting at the foot of the stairs without Izumo or Uke. "Where are the girls?" he asked.

"Izumo-chan and Noriko-chan had a test first period," Shiemi said. "They couldn't skip."

Rin squinted at the clock, after a moment he gave up and asked Konekomaru. "It's that late? Why aren't you and Bon in class?"

"Hey, what about me?" Shima pouted.

"You'd skip class for a hangnail," Konekomaru said then turned to Rin. "Bon, Shima and I got permission to skip our morning classes. "Izumo and Paku are skipping the afternoon classes."

/And Izumo-chan asked me to play seeing-eye dog until you're better,/ Mike added.

Rin flushed. "I'm okay, really. You guys don't have to." He started itching at his wrist.

Mike gave Rin a toothy smile. /I don't mind. Uke and I want to get to know you anyway./ Rin felt like he ought to worry about that somehow, but he couldn't imagine why.

After breakfast Rin turned to Konekomaru. "Um… Would you?" he stammered staring at the floor, his face flushed with embarrassment.

"Of course," Konekomaru replied without hesitation. He pushed aside his empty dishes and started back upstairs. Rin trailed after him.

"I feel like a nutcase, needing this,"Rin muttered as he rubbed at the exposed skin on his wrist.

"Don't worry about it," Konekomaru replied, catching Rin's hand in his. "It's okay to ask for reassurance."

"You've told me hundreds of times there's nothing there," Rin said. "But I can feel it. I was getting used to it I guess; learning to ignore it. My face feels like it's actually clean, it makes the rest of me feel dirtier." Once they got to Konekomaru's room Rin stripped off his shirt and laid on the bed, he buried his face in his arms to hide his discomfort.

"Your face feels different because it was burned. When you healed you basically grew all new skin," Konekomaru asserted as he started the massage. He kneaded Rin's shoulders lightly trying to communicate care and acceptance through his touch.

Gradually Rin's body relaxed, his hunger for touch and the learned habit of shying away from it both easing under Konekomaru's efforts. When Bon came up to tell him it was time for his doctor's appointment Rin had almost completely forgotten the temptation to seek Shiratori out again.

* * *

"Okumura-kun!"

Rin stopped at the sound of his name, for a moment he paused. Bon glanced over at Rin and saw him close his eyes for a moment before his posture straightened and he put on a bright smile. Then Rin turned around. "Godain! How are you doing?" he asked.

The slim dark-haired boy made a 'so-so' gesture but his tired expression lightened in response to Rin's. "How about you? You weren't around after lunch yesterday…" Godain hesitated, unable to decide whether or not he should bring up that Rin's eyes were so red it looked like they'd start bleeding if he so much as blinked.

Rin grinned. "Don't worry about me. I'm always okay," he insisted. He snatched a sheet of paper out of Godain's hand. "These guys giving you trouble or are they just around?" he asked.

Bon took the paper from Rin and scowled. "We weren't supposed to tell anyone about demons or exorcists," he said.

Rin hmphed. "Godain, meet my uptight friend Bon. Bon, Godain Sei, my normal friend."

Bon grimaced. "Suguro Ryuji, pleased to meet you. I've got no clue why this idiot calls me 'Bon'." To soften his words Bon reached over and ruffled Rin's hair.

"Y-you see them too?" Godain asked.

"Yeah," Bon admitted. He threw Rin a disparaging look. "But there are _rules_."

Rin tilted his face toward Bon with a guileless expression. "I didn't promise… and I didn't tell about being an Exorcist. I just let Godain here know he wasn't crazy and that he's not the only one that see 'em."

Bon held up the list.

"Okumura-kun figures out what they are," Godain said, wanting to get Rin out of trouble. "You see this horrible thing wandering around you homeroom muttering about blood and murder, you want to know that it's not able to rip your heart out!"

"An Uwan, a basic haunt. Just ignore it, they're all talk," Bon said automatically.

"But I don't know that," Godain argued. "I don't know where to learn these things. Okumura-kun's been helping me figure out how I should react to all these monsters wandering around."

"The school's pretty safe," Bon sighed. "Actually that's why there seem to be so many demons around here. They're all low level guys hiding from the big ones, cause the school's a safe-hold. Anyway, nine times out of ten the best thing to do when you see a demon is just ignore it. Most the time paying attention to a demon just gives it more power over you."

Godain nodded, "Okumura-kun told me the same thing, more or less." Then his eyes slid past them. "Um, do you know there's a fox spirit following you?"

Rin grinned and beckoned the byakko over. "This Mike, he's a friend of mine's familiar. She's got him mother-henning me for a bit."

Mike trotted over and stared at Godain who took a step back and gulped. RI\in dropped to one knee and wrapped an arm around the surprised byakko. "Mike's one of the good guys," he assured Godain.

As his fingers slid through Mike's soft fur, releasing the scent of Gehenna's winds, Rin suddenly felt a wave of sadness sweep over him. He sat back on his heels and swiped at his eyes.

"You okay?" Bon asked worriedly. "Your eyes getting worse?"

Godain crouched beside Rin and put a hand on his shoulder with only an uneasy look at Mike.

"'M fine," Rin mumbled. "Just… the scents on his fur, it's the same as Kuro."

"Rin's familiar," Bon explained quietly to a confused Godain. "He got killed protecting Rin."

"I'm sorry," Godain said. He squeezed Rin's shoulder sympathetically.

Rin forced himself to smile. "It's - I'm okay. Just wasn't expecting it." He carefully slipped out from under Godain's hand. "I'll be back to my normal in no time," he promised. "Don't worry about me."

Bon and Godain shared a concerned look but didn't press Rin any further.

* * *

Mephisto raised an eyebrow as he observed the two boys being escorted into his office the next day. Shiratori Reiji had two black-eyes and was probably having more trouble seeing than Rin now. The way he cradled his side indicated bruised or fractured ribs. Bon's knuckles were split and dripping blood on Mephisto's carpet. "Principal Faust, these two were found brawling in the dorms," his assistant declared.

"As if that wasn't readily apparent," Mephisto remarked.

"It took three instructors to pulled Surugo-san off him," the assistant added.

"Did it?" Mephisto asked sounding vaguely impressed. Bon glared definitely but offered no defense. Mephisto made a shooing gesture. "I will see that this serious matter is appropriately addressed," he promised and his assistant left, closing the door behind him.

Then Mephisto turned to the boys. "Two of the True Cross Academy's distinguished students brawling like common thugs?" he tsked. "Well I hope you've learned something from this." He walked over to Bon and picked up his hand. "What a mess. Whoever taught you to make a fist? We should definitely add some sort of unarmed combat training to your lessons."

Shiratori's jaw dropped. For a moment Bon looked equally shocked, then he grinned. "Sounds good to me," he said.

"This charity case attacked me!" Shiratori protested. "How can you take his side? He doesn't even have enough money to pay his tuition!"

Mephisto turned to him, "Ah yes, it all comes down to money and influence with you," he said lightly. "I suppose it never occurred to you that Rin-kun is my ward?"

Shiratori stuck out his jaw mulishly.

Mephisto held up a hand to silence him. "Shiratori Reiji, do you remember our little talk when you began classes last April? A few days earlier my old friend Father Fujimoto Shiro saved your worthless hide and so I decided to give you a chance. I told you that I would shelter you from the consequences of the life you had led for a year and a day and that if you had any sense you would change your ways before Asteroth took you forever. The year is almost up and I see little evidence of change in you."

"Like I care about what you say," Shiratori snorted. "You're just some administrator. When my parents hear you let this pauper attack me, completely unprovoked…"

Mephisto smiled. "I have already had several lengthy conversations with your parents," he said. "It's so sad, but sometimes these things happen. It's really no one's fault, no matter how well raised, how many advantages a child is given, even with the most respectable of parents sometimes the genes just combine wrong. Eventually even the most dedicated parents have to admit they've lost the battle and cut their losses. It's unpleasant but sometimes institutionalization is really the only answer. You don't have to talk to your parents Reiji-kun. I already have, this is your last chance. If you don't straighten up, there will be no-one to bail you out."

For a moment a look of fear crossed Shiratori's face, but stubborn denial quickly reasserted itself. Mephisto looked unperturbed as he escorted Shiratori out.

Once Shiratori was gone Bon's gaze dropped to the floor. "I had a plan," he said. "I was going to plant test scores in his room, get him kicked out without it coming back to Rin. But when I got there… It was just sick. He had cages in his room, five low-level demons he'd caught somehow. You couldn't think for their screaming. I'd just finished sending 'em back to Gehenna when he came in. He saw I'd gotten rid of them and he started complaining about how they were his to 'play' with. It hit me, that's how he sees Rin; something he can get away with hurting… I sort of lost it."

"Torture as an end to itself is an unattractive hobby," Mephisto remarked with a small shrug. "Still even if you had stuck to your plan, I wouldn't have allowed him to be expelled."

"What!" Bon exclaimed.

"I did promise him a year and a day," Mephisto said. "Besides, don't you want to know?"

"Know what?" Bon asked suspiciously.

"What Rin will do now," Mephisto replied. "Unintentional or not, he's discovered a way around his vow. Don't you want to know if he'll take advantage of that?"

Bon opened his mouth, then he hesitated.


	11. Extra Credit

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Eleven: Extra Credit**

On their way back from group class the following Thursday the Exwires were frozen at the sight of their dorm. When they'd left just a few hours earlier it had been fully intact, but since then the fourth floor had somehow come to resemble swiss cheese more than a building. They ran inside and raced up the stairs. Rin was first through the door only to stop cold, the other piled into him.

Once they'd unsorted themselves they all took a long moment just to stare. If the outside walls looked bad, the interior ones were worse. There were occasional columns left standing, a few walls retained their top or bottom few feet intact, but almost the entire fourth floor was being turned into a meadow. There was a foot of dirt on the newly opened floor. A smug looking Amaimon was directing Shiemi's greenmen as they scattered grass seed and planted various climbing vines at the base of the surviving columns.

Of the fourth floor bathroom there was nothing left, only a few twisted pipes marked where it had been.

Mephisto was standing in the middle of the destruction, frowning down at his younger brother in annoyance. Then he caught sight of Shiemi's surprised smile and the way Rin's shoulders relaxed upon seeing the abruptly remodeled fourth floor and his expression softened. "Well, I suppose I should be grateful you didn't bring down the whole building," he sighed. "I only had to replace a half-dozen column to keep the roof from caving in."

He pointed his umbrella toward the squeezed off water pipes and they began to grow. They burrowed under the dirt and wriggled across the floor until they formed a sprinkler system. "I've also added waterproofing to the floor and ceiling below," Mephisto announced. "Honestly, a little forethought goes a long way when remodeling," he huffed.

* * *

Almost two weeks after the incident with Shiratori Rin trailed behind Shima as they approached the two girls on his list. "You sure you want to do this now?" Shima murmured under his breath. "The bags under your eyes aren't pretty."

Rin nodded firmly. The term was winding down, if he didn't talk to the girls soon then Bon's extra credit would be messed up. As it turned out that Sato Aiko and Kimura Mana had been inseparable since returning from summer break. Rin took it as a good sign, he only had to start one conversation with a strange girl this way, instead of two.

"Hello ladies!" Shima greeted the girls effusively. "How are you doing this fine day? I'm your classmate Shima Renzo, very pleased to meet you, and this is my friend Okumura Rin."

The two girls stared at Shima for a moment, then Aiko leaned around to glance behind Shima. "No tail," she declared.

"Normal horny teenage-boy, not demon?" Mana asked.

"So that's a good thing, right?" Shima asked giving the girls a winning smile.

They looked at him for a moment. In unison they declared, "Wrong!" then dissolved into giggles.

While Shima pouted theatrically, Rin stepped forward a bit. "We see them too," he said nervously.

The two girls stopped laughing.

"How long?" Aiko asked abruptly.

"A year now," Rin said.

"I've seen them since I was little," Aiko confided. "Mana-chan only just started seeing them this summer."

"I almost drowned," Mana added. "When I woke up there were these black things floating around everywhere. No one else said anything about them so I didn't either, I didn't want anyone thinking I was crazy. Aiko-chan saw me flinching away from them when I got back to school and told me she sees them too."

"What about you?" Aiko asked Shima.

"Quite a while," Shima said with a shrug.

"I wish I didn't see them," Mana remarked.

Aiko gave her friend a small smile. "They're not all bad," she said. "I used to live on the edge of forest. Most of them just went about their business. They could be beautiful or fierce, but if you were respectful of them we could co-exist." She smiled wistfully, "There was this one snowman I'd see watching me every now and then. I always thought he looked lonely."

"It was only after we moved to the city that I started seeing so many angry or purposeless ones; demons instead of spirits." Aiko turned to Shima, "So you two noticed we see them and decided to introduce yourselves because…."

Shima grinned. "Well, it's hard to pass up a chance to talk to couple of pretty girls, especially if we've got something in common to break the ice."

Aiko rolled her eyes and Mana giggled. Rin felt a chill go down his spine. He turned and saw Izumo glowering at him. "Izumo-chan!" he exclaimed happily, then he took note of her expression.

Izumo turned and started walking away. Rin ran after her.

Shima chuckled as he and the two girls watched Izumo storm off with Rin in tow. "Well, I'm free to continue our conversation," he offered hopefully.

* * *

"Izumo!" Rin called as he caught up to her, "What did I do? Why are you mad at me?" he asked.

"I'm not mad at you," Izumo snapped, refusing to look at him.

"It's not…" Rin began uncertainly. "I thought because you had demon blood too…"

Izumo spun on her heel and growled, "How many times do I have to tell you, that evil-aura stuff your brother fed you was a load of crap!"

"So what did I do?" Rin asked. "Why have you been avoiding me?"

"I-" Izumo's expression crumpled. "It was my fault you got hurt."

Rin looked puzzled.

Izumo bit her lip. "I heard you talking to Shima about girls and I got mad, so I didn't let you walk me to class. If you'd walked me class like normal you wouldn't have gotten hurt. And then I found out it was because you were just trying to find out how those two were dealing with having a masho. It was part of being an Exorcist, not…" Izumo stomped her foot. "I know you're not doing anything wrong talking to those girls. I still hate it when you spend time with other girls!"

Rin's jaw dropped. "Shiemi's just a friend," he said quickly. "I sort of had a crush on her, but she only ever liked me as a friend and now I think she's right: we're just friends. I had to talk to those girls, if I mess up Bon's grades he won't like being my partner anymore."

"And it's not your fault Shiratori and I hate eachother," Rin continued sounding less panic stricken once the subject veered away from girls. "It's nothing to do with you, Dad was always on me not to get in fights, but I'd see Shiratori or some other jerk picking on a kid or hurting a stray animal and then I'd be in the middle of it again before my brain caught up with my fists. When the dust settled I'd always be the one in the most trouble but I'm too stupid to figure out any other way to act."

"It's not stupid. You're a good person and you're brave," Izumo protested. "It's other people who are idiots and cowards; they punish you when you're just trying to help because you can do things they can't or are scared to try. Or just because of who your father is. They're the ones with the problem, not you."

Izumo looked away. "And I can't expect you to never talk to another girl again ever. It's not realistic."

Rin chewed on his lip. "Sato and Kimura seem like they're okay. They're in way better shape than Godain anyway; Godain's a guy. But if I need to talk to them again, would you talk to them with me instead of Shima?" he asked. He flushed, "I just asked him because talking to them by myself…" Rin trailed off and shook his head. "I don't think they liked him flirting with them anyway."

Izumo nodded and tried not to be pleased to hear Rin was afraid to talk to girls.

* * *

Later that night Bon listened to Rin's report on the two girls. "Sounds like Kimura got her masho from some sort of water demon. It's recent enough that we should try to check it out, make sure the demon's been dealt with."

Rin nodded.

"We already know Godain's masho came from the portrait," Bon continued. "One of my guys got his over winter break. He stumbled across an Akaneme. He's from Kyoto so I had Shima notify his dad about it. Probably all that needs doing is giving his bathroom a good scrub, but they'll check it out. My other three are like your Sato: they've been able to see demons for as long as they can remember. Either they got their masho as a small child or there's a little demon-blood in their family."

Then Bon sighed, "I suppose I'd better talk to Shiratori. Obviously you shouldn't go anywhere near that psycho and I don't really care what happened to him, but if the demon's still out there it could hurt someone else."

Rin looked nervous. "I might know how he got it," he said. "Back in middle school and grade school we fought a lot."

Bon shook his head. "You're powers were sealed then. Breaking someone's arm isn't enough to give 'em a masho, you'd have to have burned him with your flames."

Rin chewed on his lip, "I was fighting Shiratori when my flames broke out the first time," he said. "Shiratori, Astaroth in Shiratori's body I guess, he had a knife. I didn't know if he was going to kill me or cut up my eyes or what. He had his friends holding me down, but even they were getting sort of freaked about how far he was going. And then…"

"It wasn't your fault," Bon stated. "If he was possessed when your flames broke free he already had a masho. Besides, what were you supposed to do? He attacked you."

"But I started it," Rin said, "That time it was the pigeons he was killing the day before. If you want to go all the way back I got in the middle of things in 5th grade when I found him using a magnifying glass to burn frogs. Nobody ever cared what he did, or they blamed me for it. But because of me, because I tried to do something about him he started going after Yukio." Rin slumped tiredly. "It was always like that, I'd try to do what I thought was right and it would just make things worse and everyone would get mad at me. I'm such a screw up."

"You're not a screw up," Bon insisted. "And you wouldn't be you if you could turn your back on someone in trouble. You wouldn't be the guy who got between me and a leaper even though I was a jerk to you before hand. Maybe you'd get in less trouble if you were different, but I like the way you are."

A small smile quirked Rin's lips up, "You're biased 'cause I saved your ass."

"And now you're stuck with me, Knight," Bon replied and Rin snorted.

After a moment Bon glanced back at Rin. "You were out awful late last night," he said tentatively.

"That new drill Angel gave me; the one with both the wakizashi and the katana; it's impossible," Rin said. "I was up on the roof practicing all night."

"Well, be sure you get some sleep tonight," Bon replied seeming relieved. "And try to find out where Kimura was attacked as soon as possible."

* * *

"Hey," Rin called. Aiko and Mana glanced up and smiled when they saw Rin waving. Izumo and Godain stood by him.

"Where's the flirt?" Aiko asked.

"We'll tell him you asked after him, I'm sure he'll find you," Izumo said. "Kamiki Izumo, Rin's girlfriend."

"You didn't tell me she was your girlfriend," Godain whispered to Rin while the girls traded names.

"I didn't know," Rin whispered back, a surprised smile splitting his face.

"So um?" Mana asked uncertainly.

"Yeah," Rin replied. "They see them too."

"I've always seen them, there's demon blood in my family," Izumo stated challengingly.

"Godain just got a masho at the start of the term," Rin interjected.

Mana smiled at him, "It's hard when you don't know other people see them too."

Godain gulped and nodded.

"What's a masho?" Aiko asked.

"A wound inflicted by a demon," Izumo explained. "Once you've had one you see demons."

"So when I nearly drowned, that was a demon?" Mana asked.

Rin looked at the ground, he nodded apologetically.

"I didn't see anything," Mana protested. "We'd gone camping-"

"Where?" Rin asked quickly.

"Near Akigawa Gorge," Mana replied. "We'd been hiking all day, I remember leaning over the water to splash my face… then nothing. My friends said I must have slipped on the rocks and fallen in."

* * *

"Well, I suppose this isn't a bad spot," Shima said the next weekend. He stopped in the middle of a long swinging bridge to watch the sun rise over the lush river valley. "Although it would be more fun we weren't here because Bon convinced our teachers to give us extra homework."

"Are you an Exorcist or what?" Tsuzo said, smacking her younger brother upside the head. "Bon and Rin did a good job tracking this demon down and you're on back-up anyway."

"Right," Bon said. "If everything goes according to plan we'll have a nice hike, get rid of a demon that's been attacking people in the area, then spend the rest of the weekend enjoying the park."

"We got out of Saturday's group class," Rin pointed out as they started hiking again. "We could be taking a demon pharmacology test right now."

Shima grinned. "You're completely right Rin; just about anything is better than a test. And if you and Bon don't screw up the rest of us don't have to work."

"Like you can talk," Bon humphed, "We rescued you from the Street Car."

"Ah, but I feel no shame at getting help with class assignments," Shima laughed.

They followed the trail further up the gorge, quickly moving toward the more remote regions of the park. They stopped for lunch in an isolated glade. Everyone made appreciative noises as Rin started unpacking the over-sized backpack he'd been carrying.

"And here I thought you'd brought special gear for your assignment," Nagatomo commented shaking his head as more and more food emerged from the pack.

"We've got everything we need," Bon asserted, but he dug a notebook out of his own pack and began flipping through it with an intense frown on his face.

Konekomaru leaned over his shoulder and saw Bon had listed a number of water demons along with their identifiers, fatal verses and other methods of exorcism. "If it's not on your list or if it's one of the ones where you don't have a fatal verse what are you going to do?" he asked.

"We're counting on Rin's physical strength to get it out in the open," Bon said. "Hopefully I'll have a fatal verse prepared but if that doesn't work I've got a clip of ammo packed with consecrated earth, that should be pretty effective against any of Egyn's Kin. And there's always Kurikara, but Mephisto said if we fall back on Rin's flames our grade'll take the same hit as if we need you guys to back us up."

Over on the other side of the glade Rin fussed a bit with a few last minute details of their lunch, adding a salad dressing and a few garnishes, arranging the dishes on the picnic blanket. "Shiemi's growing a bunch of the vegetables in her greenhouse for us," he commented to Nagatomo and Izumo. "The supermarket isn't bad, but you can't get any fresher than straight out of the garden."

Nagatomo watched Rin lay out the dishes, "You've gotten a lot more conscious of presentation," he said. "You're becoming a real professional under Itamae-san's tutelage."

Rin flushed with pleasure. "If I hadn't drawn Kurikara, if I'd just done what Dad told me to that night… Well, I think, if I were human I'd really love to be a chef."

"You don't have to be an exorcist you know," Shima said.

"I kinda do," Rin said with a shrug. "If they can't use me the Grigori will kill me."

An unhappy pall fell over the gathering. "It shouldn't be like that," Izumo said, her red eyes flashing angrily.

"It all works out," Rin declared with a brittle smile. "'Cause I'm gonna kick Satan's ass whether the True Cross helps or not. I owe him for Dad."

"Your meal looks wonderful," Konekomaru said. "Maybe there's some way you could do both. Like Bon said, once his mother sees what you can do, she is going to want to steal you for the Ryokan. Maybe the two of you could occasionally let her."

"Itadakimasu," Shiemi said and the others echoed her. For a time enjoying their meal ended all conversation. After they were finished and their trash had been packed up they resumed the hike. A short while later they reached the small waterfall pool where Kimura Mana had been attacked.

Rin handed Kurikara to Bon then took off his back-pack and set it aside. He walked up to the side of the pool. "Ready?" he asked Bon.

"Don't get pulled in," Bon replied. He took the Koma sword out of it's bag and held it ready to draw. "We don't know how well your flames stand up to water."

"Yeah, yeah," Rin waved him off as he went to kneel beside the water. "Don't you get tongue-tied."

Rin reached down. The moment his hand broke the surface of the water spindly, green arms reached up to drag him under. But Rin was ready, he grabbed the surprised demon and rolled backward, pulling it out of the water and pinning it on the bank. "Not a kappa!" he shouted as it thrashed madly beneath him.

"Tell me something I don't know!" Bon shouted back as he tried to get a look around Rin at the demon. "Grindylow, long way from home. Haggai 1:11," he muttered to himself. Then his voice rang out clear and strong. "And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands!"

As Bon recited the Grindylow withered and dried up. It's shell turned to dust beneath Rin's hands and blew away. Rin stood up and dusted himself off. "Pretty smooth huh?" he asked.

Bon tossed Kurikara back. "Like clockwork."

"Yeah, yeah, you did good, but don't get a swelled head," Tsuzo said. "Father Nagatomo and I will report back. You're instructors will review your performance and it'll get averaged in with your other scores. Now lets get back to our camp at Ina before it gets dark."

* * *

It was very late that night. Through the wall of the girls' tent Izumo saw a shadow pass in front of the smoldering fire. She picked up one of her summoning papers and peered cautiously through the flaps.

Rin set another couple sticks of firewood over the embers left in the pit and the fire blazed back up.

"Why aren't you in bed?" Izumo asked softly as she tucked the paper back in her sash and crawled out of the tent to join him.

Rin shrugged. "Not tired." He sat down on one of the logs near the fire pit and warmed his hands. Izumo went and sat beside him.

For a time they sat together in silence then Rin glanced nervously at Izumo. "So um, when you said… to Aiko and Mana?" he stammered. "About um, being my girlfriend?"

Izumo blushed. "Did I mean it?" she asked. She thought for a moment, "I should have asked you first probably," she admitted. "But yeah, I'm not taking it back." Maybe she'd only said it because she didn't want those girls getting any ideas, but... "I meant it. I mean, if you want to go out?"

Rin nodded quickly; smiling but at a loss for words. After a moment he shifted a bit closer to Izumo, "It's nice, watching the fire. We could just sit here for a while," he managed.

The tension ran out of Izumo's shoulders, she shifted over a bit herself until their arms were brushing. "The stars are really bright out here."

"Put your arm around her!" someone hissed from the direction of the guy's tent. It was followed by a thump then a muffled "Ow!" and a muttered, "Aren't you supposed to be a grown-up, not to mention a priest?"

Both Rin and Izumo turned bright red. "The wind's really loud tonight," Izumo said with a dark look in the direction of the voices. "And nosy!"

"Yeah," Rin agreed. "Wind." He did put his arm around her shoulders though and smiled a little wistfully, because Shiro would have done the same thing.


	12. Year's End

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Twelve: Year's End**

Mephisto looked up from the written reports Bon and Rin had submitted, tilted his head to one side curiously and asked Rin, "You're recommending that the True Cross train all four of them as Exorcists?"

Rin nodded. "Aiko's figured out a lot of the Page stuff on her own. She doesn't freak and she has a good feel for people or demon's intentions. She'd be a great Exorcist. Godain and Mana are scared 'cause they don't know anything. Even if they drop out like Paku did, they'll be better off if they've been through the Page training. And Shiratori likes hurting demons, the Grigori'll probably love him."

"And what of your four?" Mephisto asked Bon, his voice giving nothing away.

"Yamada Taro pretends that he can't see demons and Mori Nao is a shut-in, she's figured out some functional wards to keep demons out of her room and she never leaves if she can help it. The reason she's failing Biology is because there's a demon that hangs out by the preserved fetus, she won't go to class, not even for tests. Neither of them would make it as Exorcists. Ito Sora and Maki Yoshi are like Rin's Godain and Kimura, they're scared but it's because they don't know enough," Bon reported.

"Well, I don't see any problem providing Yamada with what he wants," Mephisto produced a vial of eye-drops with a conjurer's flourish. "Mori as well, perhaps she'll be less fearful if she stops seeing demons. I will take your recommendations for Ito, Maki, Kimura, Godain and Sato into account when the entrance board discusses them. In truth Ito Sora, Maki Yoshi, Sato Aiko and Mori Nao were given scholarships at the True Cross Academy for the sole purpose of evaluating their suitability as Exorcists."

"Um, Godain might like not seeing demons anymore," Rin said sounding a bit uncertain. "Can we offer him the eye-drops? And why didn't the other four get scholarships?"

"Because they didn't have mashos when they applied for entrance," Mephisto replied simply. "Now, with regards to Shiratori, he is completely unsuitable, more importantly I don't like him. So, how does one phrase 'I don't like him' to the Grigori? Hmmm…He has a problem with respecting authority does he not? He skips classes, is disrespectful of his teachers and elders. He is mentally unstable, after all the boy spent a year in a mental institute," Mephisto grinned. "Although to be honest, nothing you say about Shiratori will matter at all; he has been possessed by a Hell King."

Rin and Bon looked confused.

"As you know, possession of a human requires a gap in the true soul's defenses. Satan is only limited by his host's physical ability to withstand his presence," Mephisto explained. "Given that only one in a billion humans can withstand his presence for more than ten minutes without being reduced to ash it is a fairly severe limitation. But the eight Hell Kings; while not so powerful as to simply burn out their hosts; do have their own limitations. For Satan the gap is simply a chink in the soul's armor to be exploited at his leisure but for the rest of us it is a key hole which only provides entry if you hold the matching key."

"Astaroth needs a certain, rather unpleasant sort of human provide him with access to Assiah, he's found one in Shiratori and it is only a matter of time before he tries to make use of that entry point once again."

"That's why you wouldn't expel him," Bon said. "It's not just your promise, if you cut him loose Astaroth would have access to this plane."

"And he's no good as an exorcist, 'cause you couldn't shield him in the field," Rin realized.

Mephisto just smiled.

"So is our assignment completed to your satisfaction?" Bon asked stiffly.

Mephisto leaned forward and steepled his hands. "Are you asking about your grade, by chance?" he teased.

Bon glared.

"You have been awarded with a score of 100% for identifying and dealing with the demon which attacked Kimura-san," Mephisto declared. "Averaged with your performance in the matter of the Statue, with bonus points for backing up the other Exwire teams, your grade for the Spring Term practical experience segment of your training is now 95%."

"That's good right?" Rin asked Bon hopefully.

"Yeah, that's good enough," Bon sighed. "Still hate losing to Koneko. We've been trading between first and second rank in every class we've ever taken since pre-school. But it's a decent grade." He slapped Rin on the back, "Come on, we're going to be late for the term's last spar with Angel."

* * *

"We're done for the day," Angel announced. Rin glanced at Bon and gave the other boy a proud grin. The Paladin was mussed and breathing hard after holding them off for two hours. At the beginning of the term that would not have been the case. Best of all there was a splatter of neon green die on the hem of his long gleaming white coat.

Angel started walking toward the pile of gear he'd left at the door before beginning their spar.

Rin shifted from foot to foot uncertainly.

"Well, go on and ask," Bon prodded.

Rin started after Angel. "Um… about next week? You know it's Spring Break right?"

"Is it?" Angel replied disinterestedly.

"Yoshikuni, the girl that repaired Kurikara for me, she invited us all to come visit," Rin said nervously.

"Hmph," Angel spent a few long moments settling Caliburn in place. Then he picked up a canvas wrapped bundle and turned back to Rin. "As it happens I have a mission next week which will take me out of the country. I wouldn't have had time for your lessons anyway," he declared as he shoved the bundle into Rin's arms.

Rin stared at it in confusion for a moment then started picking at the knots holding the canvas closed. It unrolled to reveal a matched wakizashi and katana set as well as a leather harness that would hold both swords plus Kurikara. The katana was the same size and weight as Rin's demon sword, the harness would hold it and Kurikara crossed over his back. The wakizashi was shorter and lighter and worn at his waist, to be drawn quickly.

The Daisho set and harness were utilitarian but very well-made. Rin stared at them in amazement. "Angel… Thanks," he managed to stammer after a moment.

"It's annoying that I'm teaching you to be a swordsman when you are incapable of drawing your sword and routinely resort to fighting with your claws like a dumb beast," Angel declared haughtily. He turned to leave. "I will expect you at the normal time next term. If your form degrades in my absence you will regret it."

"Good luck with your mission," Rin replied.

* * *

Saturday morning Rin knocked on Mephisto's office door. "You wanted to see me?" he asked warily.

"Ah good! I caught you before you left for Spring Break!" Mephisto exclaimed.

"Yeah," Rin said looking anything but happy. "You're not gonna say I can't go? Amaimon's coming, if he can go why can't I?"

"Borrowing trouble is such a ridiculous habit," Mephisto tsked. "I simply wished to take a moment to discuss your future. The new school year approaches! Are you ready to restart your academic career with a fresh slate?"

Rin grimaced. "Do I have to?" he whined. "I really like working for Itamae-san. And I'm rotten at school. I'm just gonna fail, so why bother?"

Mephisto leaned forward and pressed his fingertips to his chin. He waited for a moment. Rin fidgeted.

"I must admit Itamae isn't looking forward to giving you up," Mephisto said as the silence became awkward. "He claims you have a true talent. In fact he's offered to recommend you to several prestigious culinary institutes…"

For a brief moment Rin looked ecstatic. A huge grin spread across his face.

"Of course that would interfere with your goal of becoming an Exorcist. Then, naturally, the Grigori would reinstate the order to have you executed."

The light died out of Rin's eyes but determination rekindled it. "I wouldn't leave my friends anyway," he declared. "Bon and me, we're gonna kick Satan's ass. That's the plan. I'd love to be a real chef, but this is more important."

"Quite well said," Mephisto agreed after another long pause. "However, I do have a slight compromise to offer: The True Cross Academy is not normally a trade school, but given your special circumstances I am willing to be flexible."

Rin looked cautiously interested.

"I propose you continue your apprenticeship with Itamae while completing a reduced curriculum," Mephisto explained. "A solid grounding in mathematics. A bit of history and literature to make you well-rounded and to ensure that both your written and oral reports as an Exorcist are tolerable. Itamae will see that you have a bit of the sciences. And you will continue with Cram School as normal, naturally."

Rin's expression brightened notably.

"Perhaps three hours of class a day, three hours with Itamae and five hours of cram school on average," Mephisto suggested. "Do you think you can handle such a schedule?"

"Oh yeah!" Rin exclaimed eagerly.

"Well then, it's all settled," Mephisto said. "Off you go, enjoy your vacation."

"Thanks!" Rin replied.

Once Rin had left Mephisto smiled ruefully and shook his head. "I'm going to have to work harder at teaching him negotiation," he said to himself.

* * *

Rin joined the other Exwires, Paku and Amaimon at the train station. "No problems?" Bon asked.

"Nope," Rin replied with a relieved grin. "Just getting my schedule for next year. I get to keep working with Itamae and I don't have to take a full load of classes."

"Well it seems like you're happy," Bon said with a faint air of disapproval as they boarded the train.

The seven students scattered to find seats or handholds on the relatively full passenger car. Amaimon followed Shiemi then stood over her and glared at everyone else around them while stuffing jellybeans in his mouth. Gradually as the stops and passengers came and went the Exwires shifted around to take over the back of the train. The three girls took the seats along the back of the car while the boys stood nearby, grasping the handholds for balance.

When they reached the end of the line they transferred to a bus. Rather than taking a seat for himself, Amaimon chose to perch on the back of the bench near Shiemi. Before long they left paved roads behind as well as trains. As the road grew bumpier Rin watched the way Amaimon swayed with the motion, minutely shifting his weight to maintain his perch without ever grabbing anything or even spreading his arms for balance. Amaimon noticed the younger demon watching and gave him a challenging look.

Rin hopped up on the back of his own seat and tried to imitate Amaimon. After a few near tumbles, leading to Izumo and Paku to move seats where they weren't in danger of being fallen on, Rin got the hang of it. He still had to keep his hands slightly spread though, and Amaimon smirked in satisfaction at his superiority. 'It was only right, I am the older brother,' Amaimon thought to himself.

Izumo stood up and for a moment Rin thought she was going to take her original seat but she stopped in the middle of the aisle. Izumo took one foot off the floor and tucked it behind her other knee then clasped her hands behind her back. After five minutes without so much as waver Izumo gave the two demons a smug look. "You may have inhuman reflexes, but I've trained as a dancer since I started walking," she informed them.

Shiemi smiled and shook her head at all three of them.

"Wow, this is really out of the way," Paku remarked. "How'd you meet someone who lives so far from Kyoto?"

"It's not far from our temple," Bon explained. "Until we gave up on rebuilding the temple and merged with the True Cross we lived out here."

"Are you going to visit your family before we go back?" Rin asked. "The rest of us could spend a day sightseeing in Kyoto if you don't want us along."

Bon shook his head. "I'm not ready to go home yet. Not until I'm a full Exorcist."

Rin looked guilty, immediately assuming it was his fault Bon hadn't had a chance to take the Exorcist Exam yet.

"You heard Mephisto," Konekomaru said. "First year Exwires never pass."

"Don't blame yourself because Bon's a stubborn idiot," Shima added. "No one made him practically run off to Tokyo. His parents may not have been thrilled about Bon wanting to be an Exorcist, but everyone else in the clan spoils him. They would have convinced his parents to give him his way before classes started. Bon handing his parents the letter about his scholarship and walking out was just him being a drama queen. He didn't even get halfway to the train station before Koneko and I's parents sent us after him and we were enrolled at the True Cross Academy before the train arrived in Tokyo."

Bon gave his two friends a dirty look. "If you two want to check in, I'm not stopping you," he said.

Shima shook his head, "Naw, I don't feel like being subjected to the grilling without you there to distract people."

It was late by the time they reached Yoshikuni's forge. She greeted them and got them settled for the night with little more than the promise that they'd catch up in the morning. "Just make yourselves at home," she told them as they stumbled tiredly toward their beds.


	13. Spring Break

**Walk me through the Valley**

**Disclaimer:** Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

**Chapter Thirteen: Spring Break**

The next morning Yoshikuni headed out to her forge confident that none of her guests would be up yet. She'd only been there a few minutes when Bon stuck his head in the door. "No one'll mind if I use the stream bed for a shooting range right?" he asked.

Yoshikuni looked surprised for a moment then reminded herself that Ryuji had always been way too serious for his age. "So you're really Dragoon now?" she asked. "How's that going?"

"I'm pretty deadly against stationary targets and my reload rate is just under ten seconds." Bon grinned ruefully, "In other words I've got a long way to go, but I'm making progress."

"The stream bed's fine for practice," Yoshikuni said. "But do try to remember you're here for a vacation."

Bon smirked a bit. "I'll try but I make no promises," he said.

Yoshikuni laughed. "Oh go on, you. Be back in time for breakfast."

"Yeah, about breakfast," Bon replied. "I saw Rin and Paku heading down to the market, so don't be too surprised when you find your kitchen taken over."

"Thank goodness, I was just going to feed the lot of you sandwiches while you were here," Yoshikuni replied. "I hate cooking."

"I might have mentioned that to Rin," Bon admitted as he left for his target practice.

Yoshikuni finished up her work for the morning then headed back to the house to clean up, but was distracted by the crash of wood on wood and the incongruous tinkling of chimes. Curiously she peered behind the house and saw Izumo and Shima sparring. As Yoshikuni watched Shima used the rings of his staff to tangle the blunted blade of Izumo's practice naginata and ripped the staff out of her hands. Izumo stumbled forward, apparently trying to keep hold of her weapon, but at the last moment she let it go and used the decreased distance between them and the fact that Shima's staff was still tangled with hers to kick him in the stomach. Shima doubled over, losing his staff as well, but he lunged forward and tackled Izumo, pinning her beneath him. For a moment it seemed like his greater size was going to decide the spar, then he leered at the girl trapped beneath him. Izumo scowled and kneed him between the legs. While he rolled on the ground in agony, Izumo walked over to their weapons and freed hers. Then she walked off.

Yoshikuni helped Shima off the ground. "So is this a typical spar for you two?" she asked.

"Naw, Big Sis is usually watching," Shima replied. "I wouldn't have tried to cop a feel with her there."

"So basically, you got what you deserved," Yoshikuni remarked.

"Yeah, I deserved that. But if I did it with Big Sis watching? Well, after Izumo-chan nailed me, Big Sis would have smacked me, then she would have written to Mom and then Mom would scold me. Not even Izumo-chan is worth that," Shima replied. "So I took my chance today when the punishment ends in… well… maybe half an hour? I hope."

"You're still utterly incorrigible aren't you," Yoshikuni asked.

"Even worse than when we were in grade school," Konekomaru confirmed as he joined them.

"Hey there," Yoshikuni greeted him, she looked down and blushed a little.

"Hi, it's been a while," Konekomaru replied a bit awkwardly.

"You didn't come out with the others last summer," Yoshikuni said questioningly.

"I hadn't gotten my head straight about Rin then," Konekomaru said, his gaze dropped to the ground. "Usually Bon's the hot-head, but he was thinking better than I was then: First you keep everyone alive, _nothing _comes before that. Thank you for finding a way to repair Rin's sword."

"Well now, I could hardly let Kurikara break on my watch," Yoshikuni replied. "How'd the clan's demon-sword end up being used to house your friend's heart anyway?"

Konekomaru sighed. "Long story and it's not as if Rin had any say in what happened. If he was even born when Kurikara was stolen I'd guess he was no more than a few days old."

"Does it have something to do with the plague?" Yoshikuni asked her eyes sharpening.

Konekomaru looked startled. "That never occurred to me," he said. "I don't know if Kurikara was payment for curing the plague or not, but either way it could be trouble if people think it was. I need to talk to Bon."

"He's down at the stream bed shooting stuff," Yoshikuni told him, knowing Konekomaru wouldn't want to delay.

"Thank you," Konekomaru replied with a formal bow then he headed off.

"When it comes to trouble for Rin the fun never stops," Shima remarked with a shake of his head and the two of them headed inside.

As the door opened a bevy of delicious aromas engulfed them, Yoshikuni felt her mouth watering embarrassingly. Shima gave her a knowing grin. "Living with Rin-kun has certain unexpected benefits," he said. "He was a great cook to start with and he's only gotten better since starting his apprenticeship with the True Cross Academy's chef. For a while we tried to split up the cooking a little to be fair, but getting Rin out of a kitchen is harder than you'd think. So at home he doesn't do dishes ever or many other cleaning chores to keep things equitable." The pink-haired boy grinned mischieviously. "And it gives Bon and Koneko more time to force him to study… which keeps 'em off my back. Although studying with Shiemi-chan's got it's pluses."

"Incorrigible," Yoshikuni repeated.

Shima grinned shamelessly. "If you weren't engaged, I'd try for you too," he told her.

She laughed, "Be honest, the only reason you don't hit on me is that I'm a blacksmith."

"You do slap a bit harder than most," Shima admitted. "But Izumo-chan fights dirty… Actually I sort of like that about her. Shiemi-chan'd probably hide or cry if I tried anything with her, then I'd feel rotten."

They poked their heads in the kitchen as they passed by. Paku was assisting Rin to prepare a huge breakfast. "Ooh! Sweet stuff," Yoshikuni exclaimed clapping her hands at the sight of whipping cream.

Rin grinned at them "I'm experimenting with crepes," he announced happily. "I've got some savory ones too."

"Looking forward to eating 'em," Shima replied.

"So where are your last two friends?" Yoshikuni asked. "Please tell me someone slept in."

Paku shook her head. "Shiemi-chan went out looking for clippings for her garden. Amaimon followed her to try to talk her into treating him to sweets instead. He's already almost out of candy."

Rin shook his head. "How?" he wondered. "It's not like there were any clothes in that bag he brought."

"Shiemi's off on her own with Amaimon?" Shima exclaimed frowning.

Rin looked unconcerned. "She's good at handling him in our Negotiation class. While we're out in the middle of nowhere, I'm sort of thinking about trying to convince Shiemi that me and Amaimon could spar without getting in a real fight," he said. "I get plenty of practice fighting someone who's more trained than I am with Angel. It'd be interesting to see how I do against a powerhouse like Amaimon now." The dark-haired boy snickered. "But he's gotta get Shiemi's permission first."

"I might just go check up on them anyway," Shima decided.

* * *

While the other Exwires cleaned up the breakfast dishes Rin found a quiet spot to practice his sword drills. He'd been working at it for an hour when Izumo came out. She took a seat on a nearby rock and watched him complete the drill. He practiced the movements of drawing and sheathing his various blades, turning as he did to fend off invisible threats.

Izumo noticed Kurikara was propped up on a nearby stone, replaced with a practice sword until Rin could regain the ability to unseal his powers for himself. "You're becoming graceful," she commented.

Rin shrugged. "I guess," he said. "I was always good in a fight, but how could I not be when I'm stronger than any human should be."

"You're getting efficient," Izumo clarified. "You don't waste movements anymore. Your training shows more and more when you move. My dance training taught me to be the same."

Rin stripped off his sweaty shirt and dropped into the grass beside her. "You thinking about what your familiars asked?" he said remembering Inari's Festival Day.

"We've talked more, but it hurts to remember," Izumo said quietly. "I don't want to think about any of that. Still the physical discipline when I'm training with my naginata, it reminds me of training for the ceremonial dances without the bad memories. I am going to try… You can watch if you want. "

"I'd like that," Rin replied.

After a moment Izumo added, "Sometimes I wish Neuhaus were still teaching Taming. He never cared if we had a good relationship with our familiars, all he wanted me to do was dominate Mike and Uke. Neuhaus wanted me to force them to obey me, Father Nagatomo tells me to make them want to obey... When you ask people for things they can always let you down."

"If you force 'em to help, then they'll always be looking for a way to screw you over," Rin disagreed.

"Better to only depend on yourself," Izumo replied. "But I'm not that strong yet."

"Then you'd be alone," Rin's tone said there was no worse fate in all the world.

Izumo cautiously put her hand on top of his. "You're not alone. I just don't want to lean on you."

Rin turned his hand over and squeezed hers in return. "I do get it, I don't like having to depend on you guys so much either. But it's a little bit better when I'm giving something back too. I'd do anything-"

Izumo put a hand over Rin's mouth to silence him. "Don't make careless promises. You're so sincere, they bind you like chains."

"Some bonds I don't mind. The last thing I ever want is to fail you."

* * *

The next day, Shima and Shiemi were washing the dinner dishes when they saw Rin and Izumo slip away from the house together.

"Doesn't it bother you, seeing them together?" Shima asked.

Shiemi looked puzzled. "Why? I think they're a cute couple." She giggled, "I can't wait to tell Noriko-chan that they're finally getting closer."

"But Rin always had such a huge crush on you," Shima said frowning. "I figured it was just a matter of time until the two of you got together and now he's with Izumo."

"He did? oh. Oh!" Shiemi exclaimed putting a hand over her mouth. "That's why he'd never say we were friends!" She buried her face in her hands and shook her head. "I can't believe… I'd feel so hurt because I thought he didn't want to be my friend because I was so timid or- or I don't know. But he wanted to be my _boy_friend; I was probably making him feel bad too. And, and neither of us meant it that way. Oh, I'm so glad that's straightened out."

"You didn't know? I thought everyone knew," Shima said.

Shiemi shook her head, her hair flying about her face at the rapid movement. "I like Rin; he's my best friend, my first real friend; but not that way," she said. "I never thought… I liked Yuki, Yukio, before we knew what he was doing." A shadow fell across Shiemi's face, "It'll be awhile before I trust myself enough to like someone else like that again. I was so stupid to trust someone like him."

Shima put a hand on her shoulder. "We all trusted him. Even Mephisto got fooled." Then he realized that his hand was still wet from the dishes and he'd left a huge wet spot on Shiemi's kimono. "Sorry, sorry," he muttered, grabbing a dish-towel and trying to pat the spot dry only to realize if she'd been any other girl he'd have used it as an excuse to grope her. At that point Shima turned bright red.

Shiemi laughed at how flustered he was getting. Then she looked worried. "You don't like Izumo-chan do you?" she asked.

"You know me; I like all girls," Shima replied. He glanced out at the night, in the direction where Izumo and Rin had vanished, then deliberately looked away.

* * *

Izumo clenched Rin's hand so tightly that her knuckles turned white as she led him away from the blacksmith's shop. She was dressed in her traditional red and white garb and carrying a small hardwood box containing her kagura suzu tucked under her arm. When they came to a small, moonlit meadow she stopped. "Okay, I can do this," Izumo declared. She handed Rin her box.

"You'll be great," Rin promised.

Izumo gave him a tense smile, "I didn't promise great, just that I'd try," she said and summoned Mike and Uke.

The tension in the glade rocketed up with the arrival of the two byakko. It was all out in the open now, she hadn't supported them, but then they hadn't been there for her the way she needed them to be either. The facades were gone and the broken shards of their former relationship lay between them like concertina wire. "I keep my promises," Izumo stated.

"We know," Uke said quietly. Mike nodded to Rin as the fox spirits took a seat at the edge of the meadow. Rin knelt and held the box out to Izumo with great ceremony. Izumo gently opened the carved lid then lifted the bell set out. Carefully she straightened the trailing ribbons. As she walked to the center of the meadow Rin closed the box and went to sit with Mike and Uke.

Izumo took a deep breath and stared up at the moon for a time. She let the sounds of the night wash over her and fill her, providing the music for her dance. Then slowly, she raised the bells above her head. The moonlight reflected softly off their polished surface and deepened the colors of the trailing ribbons. Izumo kept stretching upward, going up on her toes, her face tilted up to the moon. For a moment she held herself utterly still, then she shook the bells once. Their clear chime rang out into the night. She lowered her arm in a graceful arc as she turned, the ribbon echoing her movements in the air.

Rin watched in awe as Izumo's hands described fluid arcs, the dance accentuated by the crisp tones of her bells. Izumo's long hair trailed the movements of her body even as the ribbons trailed the movements of her hands. Rin could see and appreciated the grace and precision of Izumo's movements. And he could sense something more in the air, the moment when the dance shifted beyond the physical and Izumo became a conduit to something greater. The dance was an offering for Inari's pleasure and the god was paying attention to her supplicant.

As Izumo danced, dozens of foxes and byakko were drawn to the meadow. They watched her in silence and stillness, their eyes glowing in the night, their every sense focused completely on Izumo.

The dance ended where it had began: in the center of the meadow, reaching for the moon. For a moment the meadow held it's breath, waiting for a signal. Izumo's hand dropped to her side, she turned to see how Uke and Mike had judged her.

"Wow!" Rin exclaimed.

Izumo smiled at him tiredly, emotionally and physically exhausted by the demands of the dance.

"You did well," Uke said.

"You don't have to lie," Izumo said, "Rin doesn't know any better, but you've seen my mother dance. It wasn't the same."

Uke trotted over and put his front paws on Izumo's shoulders, "Your heart was open, the rest is just details."

The other foxes slipped away.

"Your mother shared her heart like a child does and we loved her for it," Uke continued. "We over-looked her faults because we loved her." Izumo looked away, but not before Uke saw the echoing look of understanding in her eyes. "We overlooked too much, for too long."

Rin saw tears in Izumo's eyes for a moment before she buried her face in Uke's ruff, hugging the byakko. Rin smiled a little wistfully as he turned back toward the house to leave Izumo and her familiars to finish making their amends.

* * *

**Note: ** This will be the last update until after the 4th. I'm off on vacation, taking little boy to see the grandparents!


End file.
